Incarnation: Saber
by Heavensguard
Summary: Emiya Shirou had withstood one major event of his life and bore scars from it. Now with the impending shadows of his most tragic memory resurface, how can the survivor hope to pull through once again?
1. Arrival

Summary: Emiya Shirou had withstand one major event of his life and bore scars from it. Now with the impending shadows of his most tragic memory, how can the survivor hope to pull through once again?

Perhaps by outside intervention.

A/N: Now I will say this first and foremost, I do not have the greatest track record for writing. This is my attempt to correct this and hope that perhaps a creative writer can be within my sights once again. Now for the next part. I have very limited knowledge of Nasuverse know-hows, having only watch FSN anime and only two routes of the FSN visual novel. I have developed a strange love for this unique universe and only hope to learn more about it, but for now I am making things as I go. I'm all for correcting me and teaching me the exact know-hows of magecraft and others. Tsukuhime is something I've been interested for a long time, but fail to get it for various reasons. I know only very few characters of said series and wish to know them on more acceptable levels, wikipedia and wikia don't exactly tell me what I need.  
Last I'm going to need a few read throughs on this for I am using only notepad for this. Reason being that I use notepad for quick access and that its very simple(I know Word is simple, but I've been bugged down by computer problems and fail to transfer files.) So I know there will be mistakes and am more than willing to correct them.

Now with that done, Imma do what I can.

* * *

Winds grind upon metal as a passenger plane begins its descent to landing. Within, many passengers begin to rise from jet-borne slumber from a tiring journey through the clouds. The occasional bumps from arm-stretch yawnings cause some ruckus in portions of the aircraft along with short bursts of flesh meeting flesh claps as passengers slap themselves awake.

"Uwaaaaaah!" A young raven-haired girl squeals out lowly mostly to herself, but manages to catch the attention of her fellow seatmate. The older seatmate brown-black haired male had been resting his head against the natural headrest of his seat, but when his fellow passenger squealed softly, he lifted his head only to feel the quick, yet not unwanted pain of his neck popping. He inaudibly breathed out a relieved sigh as his neck accustomed back to its original curve. He then turned to his fellow seatmate.

"First time flying?" His voice is low and soft. The girl almost didn't catch it, but because she had been downright terrified, she had picked it up like it were a siren.  
"Ano...not really, more like the second time..." If his voice was soft, her's was baby smooth. "I thought I could get use to it... but.."  
"You got scared again" His face held a small smile as he tilt his head side to side, cracking his vertebrae every now and then. She nods her head. He chuckles slightly.  
"Well, don't worry. The pilots are professionals." Her eyes lock with his.  
"So were the ones on those crashes on the news!" Her eyes grew large and wide, the edges brimming with tears. 'How did she do that?' was the man's thoughts.  
"Ah, you got me there. I still stand by what I said though. I promise you that this flight will go along just fine." He places on a charming smile. The raven-haired youth returned a small rise of the lip ends.  
"Anyway, still scared?" She nods.  
"Hai, I keep thinking on how all this could go wrong."  
"I'd say not to think that, but you'd probably wouldn't listen." She snorts.  
"You've been a jittery, twitchy, nervous wreck since you got on. It's hillarious." Her eyes had been distant, but soon lock back on his. A pout is present on her lips.  
"Really, I'm all so pleased to have been amusing."  
"Well, thats good. Seeing that you took my snacks." Her face gives way to shock, eyes widened, mouth agape, and her body open-armed.  
"I did?" He nods and smiles. "When we got our courtesy snack packages, your's just vanished into your mouth. Like shooom, out like a ghost." He made plane take off gesture with his hands, causing the girl to blush.  
"Then you kept eyeing mine. Would let it out of your sight for like 5 minutes. I then decided it be best for you to have it." Again the girl blushes and now bowed her head till her bangs hung over. "G-g-go-gomen..."  
"Don't worry about it, it helped calm you." 'For about 5 minutes' His face betrayed nothing. Bliss.

"So studying abroad?" The girl nodded vehemently. "Ah, so let me guess...American?" Her face became aghast. "How did you know?" 'You have a patch on your left breast pocket. American flag...Seton Hall?' Once again his face betrayed nothing.  
"Well, America is one of the more popular places for abroad students from Japan. My next guess was Britain." Her face resembles the english colon and capital oh. "Sugoi..." The man was on a high pedestal. Not often one like him hears that.  
"...so I assume you travel often?" Her eyes ever watching.  
"Yes, my job tends to have me go around alot."  
"Wow! Must be nice to see new places all the time." His face takes a distant look. "It would, but my work tends to have me too busy to do so."  
"Awwww, that sucks." 'Is she getting all teary-eyed now?' He was right, there was water at the girl's lids.  
"So...heading home to see the family on break?" He was haste to change the subject-  
"Hai, but I only have my mom to come home to..." and he was right. Punch on! Apply directly to the face!  
"...I'm sorry to hear that. Divorced?" 'Okay, why don't you just shove that fist down your throat, you insensitive jackass.' "No...my mom doesn't talk about my dad and my brother was killed in an accident." 'Oh, forget self-choking, just burn yourself.' Once more, his face betrayed nothing, but regret.  
"Gomenasai. I shouldn't have pried." 'Too late, dattebayo'  
"Ah, it's alright. It happened a long time ago. I am at peace with it." 'She has steel. I'll give her that'  
"I assume you live in Shinto Teito?" Her eyes perk up.  
"HAI! What yourself? Native?" That got her out of it.  
"Hai, unless you're talking about born in Tokyo. I was born and raised in Kyoto."  
"Awww" Her face drooped "So going home?" Her eyes lock once more with her new found inflight friend.  
"Ah, no. Going in the oposite direction actually. Going abit farther north. Fuyuki city."  
"Ah, I hear its a nice place... Wasn't there a big fire there?"  
"Yea, I hear it recovered well. I'm visiting someone there."  
"Cool, is it a girl?" 'Ha, knew that was coming'  
"No, I suppose. I'm visiting a friend I had when I was a kid. Though one of his caretakers is girl whom I'm friendly with."  
Her face brightens up. "Hoooooy! A innocent visit to a sickly friend suddenly fires up passions of love between his two caretakers~"  
The man could only blanch. 'How in the world?'  
"That's so kawaii~!"  
"Matte matte, how did you jump to that conclusion!"  
"Ayah, it's all there, you visit a sickly friend and soon become enraptured with his caretaker that you are so close too.~"  
Her eyes held hearts, gone was the fear prior. 'Guess this is slightly better than before.'  
"First off, He's not sickly. Secondly, we are friends only. I see her only when I was near the area, which is rarely."  
"That supports it!"  
"No it doesn't!"  
"YES!"  
"NO!"  
"We are now arriving at Shinto Teito Airport. Arriving at gate C35."

* * *

Emiya Shirou grins.

A job well done.

An old generator sits before his dirt-covered form. It appears worn and scruffed, yet also stong and reliable. With a wipe of his arm, sweat is off his forehead. He lets out a breath of relief. The class president, Issei, had asked him to take a look at the generator for the staff. If it had been hopeless, the school would buy another, but once more, "Handyman Emiya" had saved the school some money.

"I wonder how my hero outfit would look like?" The boy asks himself. His thoughts ranged from simple orange jumpsuits to extravagant suits of latex and capes.  
He laughs as he shakes his head. He rises from the floor, having knelt infront of the machine for a few hours now. He tilts his top half back, offsetting his spine, before straightening up. His eyes fall upon his tools spread across a white towel that he rests his knees upon earlier. He groans as he bends over to pick them all up.

Once all the tools were placed back into his toolbox, he picked up the towel and threw it onto his arm. He then made his way out of the room and out the building.

Once outside, the sun had just begun to fall into the horizon. The sky was orange and he could see other students finishing up with their respective clubs. No one in particular stood out to him and no one seem to notice he was there. All in all, it was a good day. Nothing stood out amongst the ordinary in class. Just an average day of societal standards of learning.

Emiya Shirou was content with this routine.

He passes the school's front gate. No one calls him. Nor did he expect any.

With hands that will never hold anything

* * *

"Are you here for business or pleasure?" The brown-black haired man matched eyes with the security guard. The man then brought his hand to his chin and appeared to ponder it. The guard was about to sigh, but an answer came just before.

"Pleasure I suppose, I'm visiting a friend."

The guard could only sweatdrop as the passenger shrugs his shoulder. He motioned the man to go through a tall scanning device. He followed the guard's commands of certain actions in the scanner before stepping out when they told him he was done.

He moved to the end of the checkpoint to gather his things. His eyes had traced over the logo of the great scanning device.

'M.B.I.?' "Mid Bio Informatics." The man turned to see a man with a white lab coat, a card on his left breast reading 'M.B.I.'  
"That new company that plans to buy out Shinto Teito?"  
"The very one." With that, the scientist walked away.

"Hmm, so another corporate power in Tokyo. Things are getting alittle out of hand." He says as he reaches for his belongings.

First is a black fabric jacket with white stripes on the arms. It had a hoodie, but no straps to tighten it. Metal zipper one would find on any modern jacket. Underneath the jacket was a black short sleeve collar button-up shirt. Black buttons with clear stripes of laminate on the left side of the light seems to reflect off of these strips and give a unique white coloring. The light also reflects off a floral laminate stripings on the right side of the shirt. A black fiber-mesh shirt lies under the button-up.

He then grabs a pair of dark blue and white sneakers and slips them onto his feet. They seem to go along with his near-white beige slacks that seem to have elastic mesh over the knees. He gathers his few bags.

"I'm sorry miss, but you are going to have to wait." A guard says.  
"Uwaaah! Why?" That voice is very familiar.

With a turn, the dark apparel man sees his inflight seatmate being detained.  
"You must have a parent or guardian escort you. I'm afraid that these regulations have been put in place." The girl's eyes have begun streaming tears.  
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! But I was allowed through the gates back in America!"  
He steps back to the scanning device. The technician behind the machine makes to inform his co-worker.

"Ano...She's with me" The brown-black haired man voices. The guard turns as does the girl. Both have their eyes lock with his own.

"Shes my sister, she can be alittle unbearable at times." He says to the guard and then turns to the girl. "Lets go...imouto-chan. We're going to be late." Her eyes were wide, but she began to nod her head. Nodding so fast, that the spectators had begun to fear for her neck.  
"Ah...hai! O-o-on-Onii-chan!" She steps quickly through the scanning machine, no problem, and the guard had already waved them through.

'Well, thats not a good sign. I now fear for all of Japan.' The raven-haired man turned to his companion. She had just put on her shoes...wait those are boots.  
'Really big boots' The man thought as he turns his sight towards the girl's face. She's smiling up at him.

"Arigatou...Oniichan" Her face brightens at the word. 'It seems she is liking how it rolls off.'  
"No problem, just thought I'd help the new flyer out." She smiles wider.  
"Well, I guess this is where we go our seperate ways." Her face becomes that of fear. "...Unless you don't know where you're going?" She nods.  
"(sigh)...well, follow me then. Where did your mom say she would pick you up?"  
"Ano...She said she would meet me in the front lobbies."  
"Well, then thats where I'll take you... but first. I gotta take a leak."  
The man begins to walk towards the side of the large junction room. He leads the girl inbetween two doorways, one indicating male restroom. The other a females. "Ah, I need to go aswell." Her legs are slightly bent toward one another. He smirks.  
"Alright, ladies first."  
"Okay... you won't steal my luggage?" Her eyes lock upon the older's.  
"No, what do you take me for?" They both smile.  
"Alrighty, be back in a jiffy." She disappears into the restroom.  
The man sets the bags by his leg and rests against the wall standing. His eyes trace over towards the bags that belong to the girl. He then faced forward and closed his eyes.

'Shes alittle too trusting... Well, I suppose she's either got an incredible amount of luck or a very good judge of character.'

Shortly she comes back. His eyes quickly looks her over. She is still wearing a white long-sleeve collar shirt with a black necktie. A black miniskirt and shorts combo along side of high black boots with higher black thigh socks. Her hair sways slightly as she stands before him. Her hair is short for a girl, its only long on the sides and has four bangs angled towards her left. She is smiling.  
"Alright, don't steal my stuff." He says with a smile and makes for the restroom. He sees her grab the strap of his bag and attempt to lift it. After a few tries, she drops the straps and begins to pant.  
"Its heavy."  
They both sport large grins.

He quickly goes through his business and as he begins to wash his hands. His eyes linger on the mirror. A few other passengers pass by behind him. Sounds of toilets flushing come at no pattern.

He glances deeply into his own brown eyes, pulling down a few to check if any were red. His hair is short, dark at the edges and gradually become a bright brown at the center. His sideburns are short, but his longer head hair carry over the sides of his head. Only two bangs from his forehead. One hangs off just above his right eyebrow while the other appears to obscure the edge of his left eye. It suits him, combinning with his slightly angular face and small lips, it brings him fairly close to a bishonen temperament.

With a breath, he dries his hands, and leaves.

The girl is still there, shes smiling. The two pick up their bags and by the dark man's lead, they begin walking.

* * *

"Mou, theres alot of people here. It's so busy." The raven-haired girl watches in awe as literal thousands of people were moving about the airport. Its crowded and barely any point of personal bubbles constantly being burst. Its something that slightly appeals to the older of the two ravens.

"Well then, here" He holds out his hand, "and hold on tight." The younger of the two ravens glances at the hand and then back up to the face. She alternates between to the two for a moment before she finally takes the hand and smiles.

"Let's go then Onii-chan."

They begin to sift through the crowd as hastily as a swimmer through a pool of caramel.

The girl looked up to her companion. He seemed far too comfortable with all of this going on.

"Onii-chan. Is this how you pick up girls?" The older raven stumbled briefly. He was surprised to have that tossed his way.

"Eh? Why would you say that?"

"You seem all too use to this kind of situation. You got any girlfriends from this?"

"No. You're not my type anyway. Too short." She gasped.

"Anyway, I've had only one girlfriend and a female friend. Thats about it. Picking up girls seems to be too much of an effort."

"Mou..."

* * *

The two ravens have finally arrove at the front lobbies and were just descending an escalator.

As the main floor came into view, the short raven's eyes widen as they fall upon one figure.

"OKA-SAN!" The girl leaps the remaining steps and after an olympic grade landing makes a mad dash towards someone. The older companion could only smile as he picks up both his and her luggage as he steps off the escalator.

He spots his fellow talking to a white haired woman. She was younger than he figure her to be. Despite the white hair, her complexion was light and soft, and she was slightly shorter than himself. She sported a white lab coat, very similar to the man from earlier. She also sported an I.D. card on her right breast pocket. M.B.I. once more.

The young raven glances back towards the older raven. Her smile broad as ever. She begins to flail her arms about in a sense one would barely identify as waving.

"Onii-chan!"

The mother glances up and locks eyes with the older raven-head. He could only smile and scratch at his neck. Nervous shivers ran along his arms, for he was uncomfortable under her gaze.

"uh...Ohayo, I see now where her cuteness came from..."  
The white haired beauty could only raise a brow while her daughter blushed with her head tipped forward. The raven barely resisted the urge to palm himself. "Ano... guess not the greatest first impression?"

"Not the worst, that I can say." Her reply was quick and sharp.  
He then hands the younger of the two females her bags.

"Well then, since you are now in good hands, I'll take my leave. Goodbye and I hope to see you again." "Bye Onii-chan! Thank you for looking after me!"

With both waving, the older raven-hair turns on his heels and heads in the oposite direction.

"Matte! Matte!" He turns his head to see the girl come running back to him. She stops just scant feet away.

"Hold on, I never got your name Onii-chan."

'Oh how silly of me' He smiles. He crosses his right arm over his abdomen and his left behind his back. Brings his left foot behind his right and bows his body slightly. With his head tipped forward, he says "My name is Kazehara Ikari, imouto-chan. And it is very nice to meet you."  
He straightens himself to see the girl before him bring her hand up to her mouth and giggle.

She then places her right foot behind and past her left, crossing her legs behind her, and grabs the edges of her miniskirt. She bows her body and head and slightly lifts the edges of her skirt.  
"I am Sahashi Yukari, and it was also nice to meet you." It was a pretty good curtsy, a very americanized version of an english woman's greeting, but still a good one.  
She straightens up and smiles. Ikari returns it.

"Yukari!" Her mother beckons her. With a smile the young girl waves once more before turning on her heels to run to her mother. Said mother's eyes lock once more upon Ikari's own. It is a menacing stare, but one that Ikari could understand.

'I do not know you and you shall do no harm to my daughter.'

He smiles and nods his understanding. He waves once more before the two disappear amongst the crowds. Turning, he continues toward his destination. He raises his left wrist to reveal a watch.

"Hmm, my plane was late."

* * *

Shirou ran a hand through his red-brown hair as he neared his home estate. His thoughts on what to cook for dinner tomorrow keeping him well-occupied. Tomorrow he would be coming home early, for he had no plans to do any repairs for the school or work at his part-time job.

"Perhaps Takoyaki or maybe something with pickled eggplant..."  
He mutters to himself as he opens his front entrance. His thoughts were far too busy to take in the fact there was an extra pair of shoes along side of two others he was familiar with.

"Tadaima" His voice rings out through the home.

"Okaerinasai senpai." A soft voice companying a beautiful girl with violet hair. Her lavender eyes meet Shirou's own hazel.

"Ohayo Sakura. How was your day?"  
"Ah, it was well."  
"Thats good, what are you making?"  
"I am making Kakuni. It should be ready soon."  
"Thats good, wouldn't want to have Fuji-nee starving for too long."  
The two students share a light laugh before Sakura gasped. "Ano senpai, you hav-"

"SHIIIIROOOOUU-CHAAAAAN!" A loud cry from deep within the home interupts the shy girl.

Further down the hall, a short-haired woman sporting a large green dress and a yellow with black stripes shirt appears and makes a truly mad dash towards the two. Shirou swore he saw a large tiger face behind the woman.

She immediately bypasses Sakura and wraps her arms around Shirou's neck. What could've been a highspeed hug turned into hurricane of movement as Shirou was then pulled by the shorter woman, whipped around her(nearly smashing Sakura), and was then placed into a headlock. All within 2 seconds.

"Ack! Gah! Ca-can't breathe...Fuji...-nee" His eyes were beginning to roll back. The woman lets up on her hold, but then grasps the boys collar.

"Shirou-chan. We have a visitor!" She cries then drags the boy behind her. Shirou barely manages to toss his shoes back at teh entrance. Sakura watches with mild amusement then picks and places Shirou's shoes along the rest.

The striped woman, Fujimura Taiga, had brought Shirou to his dinning room where soon came face to face with a newcomer, who rose to his feet when the two entered.

"Ah, Ohayo. Sorry for intruding Emiya Shirou. My name is Kazehara Ikari, I am happy to see you."

Shirou stood (or tried to for Fujimura still held his collar) still, his mind running the process of understanding. It took a sharp pain to the back of the head for Shirou to stumble out of his stupor.

"Ack...welcome to our home, Kazehara-san." Ikari smiles as he returns to his original sitting position at the table. Soon Sakura walks into the room only to wave to everyone before continuing on towards the kitchen.

* * *

"Well Ikari-chan, why didn't you say you were coming back? We could've had a huge feast!" The oldest of the four's words seem to bring doubts in one of the others.  
'More like have Sakura and myself make the feast.' Shirou though as he brings more rice to his lips. So far, only Ikari and Fuji-nee were keeping up a conversation.

"You know I don't like that Tai-chan, I highly prefer to make the food myself... Also" He turns to Sakura, who looks back surprised. "Matou-san, the kakuni is very good. Would this happen to be a shot at the Okinawan version?" Once more surprised, Sakura nods. "Hai, and you can call me Sakura, Kazehara-san. Ano, is there something lacking?" "Call me Ikari and no, the stew is fantastic. I tasted some awamori so I took a guess." He smiles as he once again digs into the food. Shirou watches a satisfied smile appear on the purple girl's lips. Indeed, her culinary skills were impressive.  
'She is probably pass my level already.' runs through Shirou's head as he takes another helping.

"Uwaaah, such good food! If only I didn't have to grade papers, I would eat this all night!" The tiger Fuji-nee starts to moan, with tears falling along her cheeks.  
"Oh thats right, I forgot you became a teacher." Ikari glances up from his food. The crying woman suddenly became joy incarnate, "YOSH! Thats right, Shirou here is one of my students!" She even stands up and throws a hand toward the redhead.  
"Ah," the raven-head turns and bows his head to Shirou, "You are in my prayers Emiya-kun. I hope the gods repay you for your good deeds"  
Shirou also bows his head, "Arigato, I will need all that I can get." A hard-pressed Sakura fought the urge to giggle at the two males, however, a shocked Fujimura suddenly draws out a bokken with a tiger strap and slams down upon the bowed head of Ikari.

As the redhead and purplette flinch, the sole victim only resumes eating. "Mou Tai-chan...Where did you draw that! You didn't have it earlier!" A very reasonable question.

"Nevermind that, since you are here, did you bring it?" The evil aura that permeates the bokken seemed to disperse when her form hunched over the table and large brown eyes peered into his own. The boy begins to sweat before finally letting out a breath.

"Hai, Hai. Let me just bring it out. Cheater" the last part was let under his breath so no other occupant caught it. He reaches over to a black bag and drags it back to him. Openning it, he begins to dig into its contents. Shortly, he retrieves a square aluminum container covered by foil. He places the container on the table causing the older woman to squeal in delight.

"YES! Kyoto's Kazehara Horaki Sweet Bread!" She sings as she rips off the foil to reveal surprisingly ordinary looking bread. She then rips a small chunk and stuffs it down her throat. A moan of pleasure escapes her.  
The two students glance at one another before cautiously taking a piece of the bread after Ikari motions them to do so. They too disolve at the taste and texture.

"See, the delicious taste of the sweet bread. It shall tame any beast." Fujimura's voice is sing-song as she helps herself to another bite. "Take Tai-chan for example" *Whack* "Itai" Fujimura stands triumphant with her bloodthirsty shinai.

* * *

"At least one thing to be proud of my parents for" Ikari digs in more into his stew as the others seem to slow down.

"Bah! Your father does admirable work. You should be more appreciative."

"Tai-chan, all he makes are eroges!"

"Its beautiful work! He has loads of fans"

"You know, one of his biggest fans is in Fuyuki"

"Eh" She stops, Ikari smirks. Shirou is fairly curious now.

"I've been wondering why you've been defending his career path so adamantly, Ms. FeedtheTiger." In one moment, Fujimura was on one side of the table, 4 or so feet from Ikari. A blink later, She had reached across the table with both hands grasping at Ikari's collar. The next blink, she had brought him over the table and afterward proceeded to shake him back and forth with speed inhuman.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! How could you accuse me of indulging such pieces of art?" Her wails rebound off the walls. Sakura and Shirou could only watch with wide eyes as their elder furiously shakes the boy.

"Who else has such a tagname and defends my father's work like it were the bible?" Is what Ikari was trying to say, but his head kept knocking back and forth forcing the words into gibberish.

"'Operation Family' and 'Heroquest' are brilliant novels!" She wails once again, but this time Ikari caught something at the edge of his eyes. His left arm raised and focused upon one figure.

"Aha! Such reaction could only mean one thing!" he calls out. Everyone's eyes fall upon Sakura as her cheeks tint red. With everyone so focused upon her, the redness spread through her entire face.

"Ah! Sakura-chan, you are also a fan?" Her only answer was that the redness seemed to deepen. This caused Ikari to snort which then lead to Fuji-nee to shake him once more. Shirou looks over the purplette. She appears to purposefully indulge into the sweet bread.

"How dare you put Sakura-chan on the spot Ikari-chan. You devil!"

"Ano..." Fujimura stopped her shaking and both she and Ikari turn towards Shirou.

"What's an eroge?"

The next few hours were filled with Sakura indulging her new found addiction, Fujimura embracing(More like headlock swinging) Shirou whilst crying "Shirou-chan is SOOOO Innocent!". Ikari would have attempted to free Shirou of her deathgrip, but he was too busy on the floor laughing.

* * *

Soon Sakura and Taiga left, the former still very much red and now sported crumbs across her lips and the latter taking the prior events with stride.

This left Ikari with Shirou who agreed to allow the former to stay a few nights. Both males remained in the dinning room.

"Is there something on your mind?" Shirou had been noticing that Ikari was fidgeting and appears to look everywhere, but at him.

"Yea, theres a reason for why I'm here. Let's have some tea first." he rises to his feet and makes for the kitchen. Shirou also rises.  
"I'll make it, I got a good look at your kitchen when I came in." With forceful hand movements, Shirou relented to the guest's intrusion of his sanctum.

A moment later, Ikari returns with a kettle, two cups, and a tray.

"Didn't quite know what tea you like so I decided to make something different." Pouring himself and Shirou a cup. He passes it to the redhead and both take a testing sip of their drinks.

"Hmm, its tangy." It was warm and pretty good to Shirou's tastebuds.

"Ah that good, its called Tinola. A ginger soup from the Phillipines." He takes a sip. "Normally served with chicken, I believe it also does well as a small tea...and I'm getting distracted." He places down his cup and waits for Shirou to finish his sip.

Shirou places his cup down and looks back at his guest.

"Okay, so how do I go about this... Alright. I'll just wing it." Ikari begins to roll his right sleeve back until it was just below his elbow. He raises the reveal hand until it was adjacent to his face.

"Emiya Shirou. I, Kazehara Ikari, am a magus."

The exposed arm lit up in a spiderweb fashion with neon-yellow lights.

Emiya Shirou was frozen stiff.

A/N:

Well theres one thing I want to figure out. How to end a damn chapter. I was fighting over this, wanting to either end it where it is now or continue on for little while longer. Oh well, now to begin researching the magic basics.

I would like some know-hows on the Nasu magical works. Mage circuits, classes of magecraft, and important stuff about magic. The whole shebang. Need the stuff or I'm going to be forced to wing it. Well. Lets get started on chapter two now.


	2. Preparation and Beginnings

Incarnation: Saber

A/N:  
Well, I believe this is a good sign. I'm on chapter two, so lets hope it goes on. I'm really not sure how the mage circuits work so bear with me through this chapter for I'm sure I am going in the completely wrong direction. Also, I am going to need some tips on portraying a fight scene with spears and swords.  
I've been using a few other authors as models for your basic scenes, but It doesn't look well enough for me to present.

Got nothing else to say.

Chapter 2 Preparation

Emiya Shirou could not breathe.

He could not move.

He could not speak.

He could only think.

'Thats a magus's circuit.' ran through the redhead's thoughts. His eyes forever focused upon the web-pattern yellow lights that spread across the exposed arm of his guest, Kazehara Ikari.

'I didn't feel anything from him until now. He can kill me. No. He will kill me.' Shirou began to sweat as he wracked his mind on how to survive this encounter. Before him was a magus, a man of magecraft that can easily surpass his own. While that is not saying much, for Shirou knew very little of the magical world, Kazehara seemed to scream power with such a small display.

"Calm yourself Emiya-kun." Shirou barely heard the words. He was fearing his impending death.

"Emiya Shirou, calm yourself."

Shirou shifts his eyes from the arm to the face. It held a serious expression of eerie neutrallity. That didn't help calm his nerves.

"Look Emiya-kun, I mean you no harm." Shirou watches the yellow pattern receed from sight, the skin returning to normal pale tan. The aura also appears to have receed with the circuits, thus Shirou finally releases the breath he had been holding.

"I just thought to let you know as soon as possible. I'm not gonna dance around it. I came here with a purpose and there's a few things I have to do." Ikari says with mild conviction, he reaches for his cup of the ginger soup. The two males still have the soup-turned-tea kettle and cups to finish. Though there was doubt that finishing it was going to happen. Shirou reaches for his own cup, but his hand is shaking and covered in perspiration.

'Had I been sweating that much?' he thought as he brings his hand back to wipe against his school uniform. He still had yet to change into his more comfortable clothes. "Y-y-you scared me, Kazehara. I c-could of sworn you were going to kill me." He was still shaken up and Ikari gave an apologetic look.

"Gomen Emiya-kun. Not my intention. Well if thats how bad you'd react, then this next one is going to throw you on a loop." Shirou glances back after managing to take a successful sip of the still warm tea. "You see Emiya-kun, I'm your cousin. Fairly close cousin actually." Once more, the redhead froze. 'Cousin? But how?' "Tou-san didn't mention there being any family out there." Shirou counters and Ikari grew a distant look. "Tou-san? You mean Emiya Kiritsugu." Shirou nods. "No, I am not part of the Emiya bloodline. I guess they were right though." Shirou tilts his head, confusion evident. "You remember that you had a family before the fire?" Shirou nods, his body now tense. 'You don't mean..' "Thats right Shirou, you are part of our lineage, the Kazehara family."

Shirou froze for the third time tonight.

'I have a family?' He found it hard to breathe. He found it harder to comprehend.

"Then what is my real name? I probably have a nickname right now." "No worries, your name was Shirou before. It was just Kazehara instead of Emiya. Now this probably sounds weird, but Emiya Shirou seems to match you better than Kazehara Shirou." He chuckles as Shirou looks at him with surprise before smiling himself.

'Thats good, I'm alittle too attached to Emiya as of late.'

"I've been wanting to see you again for a long time now, its only recently that I've been given a chance to do so." Ikari smiles as he takes another sip. "Again?" Shirou was concerned, Ikari seems to know him on much more personal base.

"Hai, you probably don't remember, but we use to be much closer. More brothers than cousins. My tou-san and your kaa-san were siblings, so we often visited you here in Fuyuki." Shirou was actually delighted to know he had fairly close relatives, but one thing made itself a point in his head. "If we were so close, how come when the fire happened, your family didn't come for me?"

Ikari's face fell at that and his eyes became more focused upon his tea. Shirou knew that had struck a nerve. "We tried. We were back home in Kyoto when the fire happened. My dad brought my mom and myself to a hotel on the outskirts of Fuyuki to begin searching hospitals for you and your parents." Shirou's face also became more attentive to his tea. He knew now that he wasn't found without attempts. "When we were told to identify the bodies of your parents, we began fearing the worst for you. When it was announced that the orphans would be taken to the church, we checked there and a few more hospitals. One actually had a child with your description, but when we arrived, you were gone. Not only that, but all records of your presence was gone. We had then figured you were taken in by a magus or something." Shirou nodded.

He remembered when Kiritsugu had saved him from the fire. He remembered when Kiritsugu had adopted him. He remembered that Kiritsugu had told him he was a magus. It all made sense.

"It wasn't until five years ago that I caught word of you." Shirou looks back at Ikari, he was looking right back at him. "Five years ago... Tou-san's funeral." Ikari nodded. "Correct, I had heard that Emiya Kiritsugu had passed away and left behind a single son. A son named Shirou. I had known of Kiritsugu during my travels, a magus that served no purpose to Clocktower and was shunned by most magi, but was feared to be a good specialist at what he does." Shirou narrows his eyes, there were somethings he had not learned about his father, like who he was before and what he did. Judging from Ikari's expression, none of it was good. "What did my father do for a living?" Ikari looks at him, but shakes his head. "No. Telling you isn't going to be helpful. Judging from what I've heard, you hold him in pretty high regards." Shirou reaffirms his stare into the other's eyes.

"I want to know."  
"No"  
"Kazehara-kun, please."  
"Hmmm"  
"Please, I need to know."  
"Very well then, but know that what I am saying his the truth."  
Shirou nods and Ikari takes another sip from his tea. It was now finished.

"Your father was a killer. More importantly, a magus killer. He specialized in hunting down and killing magi and other magical creatures, mostly dead apostles." Shirou narrows his eyes and asks, "Dead apostles?" Ikari knew that Shirou was not liking his father being called a killer, but he continued. "You may associate them with the more medial title, vampires. Now not all vampires are dead apostles, but all dead apostles are vampires. Moving on, Kiritsugu had been marked as a terrorist and a mass-murder by many. There are actually few people who knew who he was." Ikari looks back at Shirou, who nods for him to continue. "Your father was actually a good man. Didn't know him on personal basis, but someone I care for has. Your father wanted to walk the path of a superhero. Saving all that he could see. He had just been turned from the straight path into something more cold. He just turned from all life was precious to let few die so that many more could live."

Shirou was familiar with the his old man's dream of being a superhero. A dream of seeing a world without strife. He frowned at the fact that he was turned from such path though. "Why?" was all he could ask. "I don't know. I knew of his actions and his former wishes, but nothing of the cause of his new convictions." Shirou bowed his head. Noone, but the late man himself could explain it. "How come you couldn't find me for five years after the fire and when you did know I was here, what kept you away?" Shirou wanted to change the topic from his late father, Ikari didn't seem well to talk about. Not that asking him why he and his family didn't come earlier for him was much better though.

"Well, Kiritsugu was pretty good at staying under the radar. He had kept you and himself hidden from anyone of magical relations. After he had passed, the Fujimura family had announced his death. I had caught word of your name and believed you could possibly be our Shirou. When I came to Fuyuki and began to ask about you, I was taken directly to the Oyabun." Shirou eyes widened, "You came here?" Ikari nods. "Yea, like I said, I started to ask about you and was taken to Fujimura Raiga, the Oyabun. Raiga-san has a pretty good judgement about him. He knew there was something special about Kiritsugu and felt the same about myself. Though he was more cautious with me. I told him I wanted to see you to make sure that you were, well, you. He showed me a picture and I knew it was you on first glance. Raiga denied my request to see you though." Shirou's eyes widen once more. "He had a good reason however, you were still mourning Kiritsugu's death and having a big bomb such as you having a family would probably do more damage than good. Now the good reason was that he knew what I was or at least had a suspicion to be wary of me."

Shirou could expect that, Raiga was a good judge of character and was always careful are around his father. Despite this, the two were always friendly.

"Given that he is cautious around the Makiri and Tohsaka, the man is a natural deterent from magic." Wait, Shirou doubles back to his 'cousin'. "What about the Makiri and Tohsaka?" Ikari rises his brow. "Well the Makiri are more known as the Matou and this land technically belongs to the Tohsaka family. They are the magi that watches over the land. Last I've heard the Matou no longer have magi blood in them and there is only one heir to the Tohsaka. On the off note, I wonder if she had recieved my letter."

Shirou coughed, not once, but twice. 'Tohsaka-san is a magus?' He had never figured the school's idol to be someone of magical abilities. Then it hit him. No one seems to know about her personal life, not even her best friend, Ayako Mitsuzuri, knew about the star's private life. In a sense, Tohsaka Rin being a magus isn't too far-fetched.

Ikari mutters a few words to himself before looking back at Shirou, "So I was denied seeing you, but I was able to get Raiga to keep me up to date with you by an extension. That extension was, as you already know, Fujimura Taiga. Our first meeting wasn't the best of meetings, but she warmed up to me soon. Well she warmed up after learning what my dad did for a living and I had paid her 'tribute' with some of my mother's sweet bread. She became a good friend over the past five years and kept tabs on you for me. For that I am thankful for." Shirou smiles, he expected Fuji-nee to extort someone like Ikari when asked favors.

"It is only recently that I was able to convince Raiga-san to let me visit." Ikari pours himself a new cup of tea and then refills Shirou's.

"What did you say to convince him?"  
"Told him something very important was coming up and that as your family, I will do what I can to help prepare you for it. Raiga-san wasn't convinced then, but when I worked it that Tohsaka and Makiri were going to be involved, he finally caved. Seems like his own father had drilled in him not to be involved with the two families. Thankful for that." "What is this important event that I would need to be prepared for?"  
"I have no clue. I was only told that it was going to be a life or death situation and that you would be caught in the middle of it. So my job is to get you ready for it."

Shirou still held his head in a desperate fight for understanding. Ikari smirks before he places his empty cup onto the tray. He stands and walks around the table and kneels beside of the boy. "First things first, I need to see how far along you are as a magus. I know Kiritsugu would've begun teaching you." Shirou shuffled uncomfortably while trying to finish his tea. He wasn't liking how cold Ikari's eyes have become, they were now analytical.

An awfully silent moment followed. Shirou was more focused on finishing the tea in his hands whilst Ikari's eye remained upon the former. It remained this way until Shirou finally caved under the stare.

"Alright, Alright. Let's go to my workshop. It would be the only place I can concentrate." Both men stood up and the redhead lead the way out of the dinning room into the courtyard behind. "You have a workshop? Gomenasai, it seems you are more ahead than I originally thought."

8

"I stand corrected. You are actually right at where I originally assumed." Ikari mutters as he glances around the shed/workshop of Emiya Shirou. There were unmarked boxes piled up against the walls, parts of machinery strewn all around, pots and pans scattered, and several bokkens resting against pillars and boxes. The only part that seemed to appear that this was a place of study was a mat in the center of it all that had several pots and parts of technology spread upon it. 'Structural analysis. So at least he is not too green.' Shirou sat cross-legged in the middle of the mat whereas Ikari knelt off to the side of it. The redhead remained silent, eyes upon Ikari. He had felt a slight twinge of frustration when the raven-haired magus commented upon his workshop.

'Well its not like my workshop is any better, but this seems to me that he has only been practicing a few spells.' Ikari thought as he composed himself.

"You are familiar with structural analysis?" Shirou nods, "Good. I will need you to do a spell while I analyze your circuits. Use another spell other than structural analysis." Shirou nods once more and closed his eyes. He shall fall through his routine of eight years. Circuit creation.

His mind was clear.  
Conception of a searing rod.  
It is at the tip of his spine.  
He braces himself. The rod inserts itself down his spine.  
Lances of pain run through his vertebrae.  
The heat does not burn, it only stabs like a knife.  
All this agony, yet his mind was clear. This was routine.

Shirou opens his eyes as the pain subsides, he wipes one sleeve across his forehead. His sleeve came back partially damp, it is a trying action creating a magic circuit. Had he faltered during the process, he would have killed himself, but as luck would have it he still breathed. He moved to pick up a pot for his most practioned spell, Reinforcement, but a hand gripped his wrist in a death hold. The redhead's hazel eyes move and lock upon very cold brown irises.

"Is there a somethin-" Shirou starts, but was smacked over the head.  
"BAKA! Do you have any idea what you just did?" Shirou recovers quickly and nods."I have went through circuit creation in prepartion into actual magecraft. Its how tou-san taught me and how I've been practicing all these years." Ikari closed his eyes and shook his head. "Shirou... You've been going about this the wrong way. I'm sorry, but Kiritsugu was a horrible teacher." Shirou frowns. "He started off on the right foot, circuit creation is important, but should only have been performed ONCE! You are suppose to build upon your first circuit, not keep making whole new ones." Shirou's eyes widen. Ikari moved over still he was kneeling infront of the redhead.

"Let me explain it to you. Uh... Are you familiar with any rpgs?" Shirou nods, "Ah yes, Final Fantasy." Ikari smiles. "Good, that makes this alittle easier. Imagine two mages, Black mages. One mage goes through battles and dungeons, fights with his all and tosses out spells, and manages to live through each one. All the experience he gets adds to his levels. With each increase, his stats go up, more importantly, his mana capacity and his mana regeneration. Over time he gets to throw out even more powerful spells and his body is accustomed to recover faster from the drain." Ikari's arms and and hands move in unique gestures to emphasize the explaination and Shirou nods at each interval. "The other mage, instead of joining the first one in his travels, goes about constantly drinking 'mana up' potions. Each potion increases his mana capacity and he drinks tons and tons of them. By the time he meets his fellow mage again, he has already accumulated around 1500 points of mana capacity whereas the other mage, we will call him the leveler, has only accumulated around 800 or so. The potion drinker has a larger amount of mana than the leveler and the two join up to fight a big monster. Both mages toss out alot of powerful spells, but soon the potion drinker is out of the fight. When he taps out of mana, his body generates his energy very slowly. You see the leveler can recover quickly because his body has already accustomed to his mana capacity whereas the potion drinker had yet to train his body to do the same."

Ikari drops his hands and points at Shirou. "Emiya-kun, you are the potion drinker. You are increasing the number of circuits faster yes, but you are not trainning your body along with it. Infact, you are worst than the potion drinker. For every circuit you have, you are only using the most recent one you made. Your body is only accustomed to one circuit. At this rate, you would never move past being a third-rate magus. Only able to master just the most basic level spells." Shirou drops his head. He had been doing everything for the past seven years the wrong way. He was a failure.

"There is one way I can help you." Shirou's eyes snapped up. Ikari held a genuine face of caution. His lips were neutral and his eyes were off to the side. He appears to be thinking and whatever it is, it was risky. "How?" Shirou asks, if whatever he is thinking can help him over his failures and allow him to be more of a hero of justice, it is more than worth the risks.

Ikari reaches into the back of his jacket and pulls out a purple stone, it is an amethyst. He raises it up to both of their eye levels. Surprising. Shirou knew that Ikari was taller than him by a few centimeters, but when he is kneeling they match at eye level. The redhead's eyes focus upon the jewel, it appears dull and refracts some purple glints from the moon shining through the open door of the shed/workshop. It looks unimportant, but the way Ikari holds it decieves that appearance.

"I will need you to swallow this." Ikari held an utmost serious expression. "Eh?" Shirou tilts his head and scratches his scalp. "You want me to swallow that?" Ikari nods. "...but its-" "I know what it is and you will need to ingest it for its effects to work on you." Shirou glances from the jewel to Ikari and back to the jewel. He repeats this for a few moments. "Emiya-kun, if you want to be a magus, I will need you to put this jewel in your mouth and swallow. Or would you prefer I stuff it down your throat for you?" Shirou blanches, Ikari seems to be taking this failure of his cousin on a more aggressive scale. "I-I-I'll take it." Fearing that his cousin would actually follow through, Shirou takes the jewel from the more accomplished magus and brings it closer to his lips.

'Suddenly its bigger than before. Can I actually swallow this? I'd probably choke and die. That would go great on the obituary. "Boy chokes on jewel, stunt done while inebriated" I don't want to do this' Shirou thoughts are racing as he continues to determine whether or not swallowing the gem is a good idea.

"If you are hesitant for a while longer, I'm going to force it down your throat myself. You won't like the way I will have to do it and neither will I." Shirou suddenly pictured Ikari taking the jewel into his own mouth and forcing it down Shirou's mouth with his own. Shaking his head of what will soon be homoerotic, he pops the gem into his mouth and knocks his head back. Coating the jewel with his saliva, it painstakingly slows down his throat. It is moments of no breathing for the redhead before he no longer felt the stone.

"It would help if you try to focus on lowering your defenses"

He highly expected some reaction, like lights or sounds. He soon felt warm. The warmth emanated from his gut and spread throughout his body. When it reached his fingers, the heat began to increase. Soon it became more than what he was comfortable, his breath began to quicken. His eyes dialated and sweat had begun to arrive in droplets. His breath became gasps as the heat in his gut became a fire. He brought his hands to his chest as if to claw away the fire. A hand gripped his shoulder, but Shirou could barely focus his eyes. Ikari held onto the redhead, "Emiya-kun, stay with me. Keep your eyes open. Emiya-kun, stay with me." He had held onto the boy as he begun shaking and his irises were pinpoints. Shirou could only think, feel, and see fire. He fell back, but he never felt the ground as he fell into darkness.

8

He could not see.

He could not hear.

He could not smell.

But he could definitly feel.

Searing lances of pain ripped into his back, hot rods of fire slipped through his arms, and he felt like he was walking on lava. It was inconcievable, it was unbearable, most of all it should be impossible. All of this pain should not be bearable, yet Shirou did not feel like he was in hell. No, this pain paled compared to that hell ten years ago. If he could live through that, this was a cake walk.

He fought, he struggled, and he bit.

The pain became manageable.

His vision of black became white.

8

Shirou's eyes open to reveal a dark ceiling. A dark ceiling of his shed. He could feel his breath come under well needed levels. He blinks several times. Finally, he sees the brown-black hair of his cousin pop in from the side.

"Congratulations Emiya-kun. You have now one hundred and fifty four circuits in total. Well above an average magus' amount." Ikari held a smile for the sweating redhead and offered his hand to him. Shirou took it and righted himself in his seated position. He could see the faint markings of a spiderweb-pattern on his wrists, they faded when they reached his hand, but were a bright cyan color before they were covered by the sleeve. Shirou felt a wave of joy overcome him as he restrained himself from crying out.

The failure of a magus had just done a turnabout.

"You had less than five percent of your total circuits filled before, including the newly made circuit. Now you have little over fifteen percent of your total circuits filled. Your assimilation of my prana was better than I originally hypothesized." Shirou focuses back on Ikari and held confusion upon his face once more. "Your prana? What exactly did that gem do?" Ikari figured Shirou would be curious and shrugged his shoulders as he retrieves yet another amethyst.

"This gem, like the one you just ingested, holds a portion of prana that I have stored in it. Also a small, small portion of my soul or essence." Shirou's eyes widen. "Don't worry, you won't turn into a clone of me. Not that I'd think that be possible. The soul portion of this gem serves two purposes." Ikari crosses one arm across his chest and the other arm rises up with pointer extended and rests the elbow on the other arm. "First is that the soul was adjusted to be submissive. Your circuit's natural defense to foreign entities is to expell it from the circuit, however the soul in the gem 'convinces' your circuits to assimilate it and the prana. This turns the prana in the gem to become yours. Mind you, not all of it will as it is still infact my prana, but your body takes in most of it." Shirou nods hesitantly and Ikari now extends the middle finger to join the pointer. "Second is that the soul and the prana are enchanted. It took me awhile to attain this, but I was able to make the prana open up and activate your other circuits. This is how most of the prana disappears. Had you have no unused circuits, you would have gained quite alot of prana, enough to fill half of your circuits. As you can tell, the unused prana became yours and your body is now attempting to fill the vast capacity you now have. The soul enchantment is alittle more complicated in creation, but rather simple in its actions." Ikari brings up the gem again, twirling it inbetween his fingers. "This is a rather nasty way of messing with ones circuits. Say for instance, a magus you were fighting forces you to swallow a gem with similar effects like this one. He or she could enchant the prana so that when it is used for one of your magecraft, it would just burn your circuits." Shirou pales as he begins to think of other possibilities of prana enchantments.

"Now, you don't have to worry about that." Ikari sees Shirou tilt his head in the same fashion as before. "The soul enchantment is to make the soul remain in your circuits. Its purpose being to prevent the assimilation of foreign prana through ingestion and other means. So whenever a foreign source of prana attempts to link with yours, even should it convince your body to allow it, the enchanted soul will reject it and expell it. Now there is a way around it, you need only be aware of this exchange and allow it. Should you hold doubts, the soul will expell it." Shirou nods his head. While he could not imagine the process of when he should allow someone else's prana link with his own, he feels gratitude that he now had another protection. It seems Ikari had done alot for him with just a small gem.

Then Shirou felt bile rise in his throat. His mouth tasted extremely bitter and rancid. He tried to withhold the bile as it pooled in his mouth. Ikari grabbed Shirou and rose him to his feet. He took him out of the shed. The taste became too much for Shirou and he vomits the bile onto the ground. The substance held a black color and a gel-like state. The redhead continues to heave for a few moments before finally he only needs to spit out the remainders. Holding a queasy expression, Shirou raises his head and looks back at Ikari.

"There is one side-effect, It has a pretty bad aftertaste." Ikari smiles sheepishly as Shirou glares at him. "If you thought that was bad. You should've tried the earlier version." He chuckles. "Arcueid could barely handle it and threatened me to adjust it." he continues to laugh. "Arcueid?" Shirou asks, but Ikari waves him off. "Not important. Now Kiritsugu had started you off, but did not teach you properly to be a magus. Now you are back on the right track. Your body will adjust to your new capacity soon enough and I'll start teaching you what I can. When I'm done with you, you will be a more respectable magus." Shirou smiles as the queasy feelings finally pass. This is a new start. He could become a hero. He now had a better chance at achieving his dream.

"Now I figure you want to go do some practicing with your expanded circuits. So I'm heading off to bed. Don't worry, Tai-chan had already shown me where you keep the futons." Ikari turns to head back into the Emiya estate. "Also, don't go through circuit creation again. Most magi conceptualize a proverbial gun as a trigger to their circuits. Just keep focused and it will soon come naturally."

"Kazehara-san." Ikari turns and faces a smiling Shirou. "Arigato. For everything." Ikari returns the smile. "No problem Emiya-kun. Its what I'm here for. Good night." With that Ikari walks into the estate and disappears.

Shirou returns to his workshop. He now held much more vigor than ever before. He grabs the nearest pot and begins.

There it was, a switch. No it changed. Now it was a revolver. Shirou imagines the trigger being pulled, the hammer sets back. His body hummed. The trigger is fully pulled and the hammer slams down. Warmth engulfs his body. Shirou had successfully activated his circuits. His smile grew.

Now it was time to try reinforcement. Analyze the object, feel for its gaps and cracks, and flood it with od.

'Crrrck'

The pot shatters. Shirou's smile fell.

"Right, just because I have more prana doesnt mean my application is any better. Alright, next pot."

There were many more unsatisfactory results that night.

8

"Okiru senpai" A soft voice drifts into Shirou's ears. This was then followed by soft nudges. "Okiru senpai" once more repeated, the soft voice actually lulls the redhead deeper. More soft nudges. "Mou senpai." There is silence. Soon more nudges to his shoulders and the boy begins to awaken. His eyes open to reveal purple hair and purple eyes. A soft face is what they belong to.

"Good morning Sakura. I overslept again, didn't I" The purplette smiles and nods. "Hai senpai. You should get up. Ikari-san is making breakfast." Shirou proceeds to get up. The moment he is on his feet, Sakura smiles and walks out of the shed. Shirou tilts his body back and stretches. He had fallen asleep in the shed that night, he had only done fifty tries of reinforcement. Only seven were successful. It wasn't much, but he will take it. After a few more stretches, he dusts himself and exits the shed.

Wait

"What did Sakura say?" Shirou returns his thoughts back to what Sakura was saying earlier. 'She said that Kazehara-san was making breakfast.' Shirou felt less than what he was. He had been so happy about being a better magus too.

He began to drag his feet toward the Emiya estate.

8

Shirou had changed his clothes to his school uniform, a light brown long-sleeve blazer with matching slacks, and made his way into the dinning room. There he sees Sakura in her school uniform, a light brown vest combo'd with a long sleeve shirt with a light red bow/ribbon at her collar, along side Fuji-nee in her average attire. He glances up toward the kitchen to see the black clothed Ikari shuffling about.

Sakura was telling the truth about Ikari making breakfast. Now seeing his cousin 'intruding' upon his sanctum, he felt all the more depressed.

Ikari emerges from the kitchen shortly with a tray. It contained natto, tamagoyaki, and various fish. It didn't help Shirou much that the food was already smelling great.

"Ikari-chan, you know you didn't have to make breakfast. Sakura-chan or Shirou-chan have always prefered to cook it themselves." Fuji-nee says as she grabs herself a share of the food. "You know me Tai-chan, I've always prefered to cook myself, thats why I've always denied going with you to eat out. Besides, I'm sort of freeloading here so this is my way of making dues." His smile was well and good-natured, but Shirou still didn't feel better. He felt worst when the food met his tongue.

It was so.  
So.  
SO good.

It easily matched his own level. His cousin was a good cook, with such a simple meal too.

No, Kazehara Ikari was not a cousin. He was an unknown, an intruder, an ENEMY.

His eyes never rose from his food as he continues to eat in silence. Ikari and Fuji-nee toss banter with a comment from Sakura every now and then. Shirou added his two cents aswell, but he wasn't focused on the conversation. He was plotting, plotting a sure-fire strategy to retake his sanctum and bring down the devil Kazehara. Oh it will be glorious victory when he would rise from the ashes of war after slayin-

"Shirou-chan, you have a scary face on right now." Shirou raises his eyes to see that Ikari and Fuji-nee stopped talking to look at him. Even Sakura looked uncomfortable. Shirou blushed and waved off everyone's looks. Ikari smirks before he pulls out a cellphone from his jacket. He flips it open and looks at the screen. "Mou, Tai-chan shouldn't you be heading for school now?" He flips his phone and faces the screen towards Fuji-nee. Her face fell. "Agh!" She quickly forces down the remains of her share. "WAAAAGH! I gotta get going. See you at practice Sakura-chan. See you in class, Shirou-chan. Catch you later, Ikari-chan. Thanks for breakfast!" In a flash, the Tiger of Fuyuki makes her peace and dashes out of the Emiya estate.

Shortly after, Sakura excuses herself and explains she needs to be at the club early today. Shortly after her departure, Shirou gets ready to leave after cleaning up with Ikari and doing about his morning exercise. As he was putting his shoes on, something drops onto his shoulder.

Looking over, Shirou met vibrant red eyes. Shirou jumped with a yelp as he swiped at his shoulder only for the red-eyed creature of white furriness to leap out of his reach into the awaiting hand of Ikari.

"Now Shirou, don't go smacking Guinevere. She's a special partner of mine." Shirou looks up from the small creature to see Ikari's smiling face. "What is it?" Then something unexpected happened. The white creature snorted. "I am a special kind of ferret familiar. A fire ferret to be exact. And you are far too young to take shots at me." Its voice was fairly soft and feminine. It was a white ferret with the occaisional brown and black spots. Its most intriguing feature was that blue flames licked up from its four paws. The flames seem not to bother Ikari or singe his hand. Despite this, Shirou was only concerned with one thing.

"It talked?" Ikari watches Shirou's reaction with some amusement. It's been awhile since someone's reacted like that to his special familiar. "Guinevere is special familiar that I had summoned when I was younger. She is very powerful and is how I will keep you protected." Shirou raises his eyes from the ferret back to Ikari, "Wait, keep me protected. How?" "Easy Emiya-san, I shall be on your person whilst you go about your daily activities." The ferret answered as she began to prune herself. "She will be hiding in your clothes. Your bag is a tad too small and that goes same for your pockets. Shes small and you'd soon be none the wiser about her pressence." With this, the ferret leaps from the hand to the redhead's shoulder before slinking through the back of his collar and beneath his clothes. "Agh! Get out! Gah! That tickles!" Shirou began to cup his hands around his body in vain attempts to capture the ferret. Ikari could only chuckle.

"Oh calm down Emiya-san. I've been alive for quite a long time, you don't have anything I haven't seen before." A muffled voice within the redhead's clothes speaks. Shirou still attempts to capture her. "Guin, go easy on him alright. Shirou, Guin and I have a special bond. Should we need to, we can share what we see and know. As of now, I'm blocking that part of our bond for your sake. Guin will let me know when shes done harassing you." Shirou nods his understanding, but he still appears to be chasing after the perverted ferret.

"If anything happens, Guin will be your shield. And should anything be out of her capabilites, she can contact me." Shirou finally gives up as he could no longer feel for the ferret. It would appear Ikari was right about not noticing her. "Alright, I'm heading to school. Take care of the house while I'm away." Ikari nods as Shirou puts on his shoes and makes for school.

8

Shirou had a nearly average day of school. He attended his classes as usual, but what wasn't normal was that he had begun talking to Guinevere in his boredom. So throughout the day, he had been speaking with the ferret hidden within his clothes, mostly about mundane things since she refused to discuss her nature and abilities along with some facts about Ikari. Shirou had been overly cautious around the school's idol, Tohsaka Rin. When he had learned from Ikari that Tohsaka was a magus, he had been alittle more wary of her.

He still is comfortable with Sakura mainly because Ikari had said that the Matou family is considered a dead magi line. Guinevere had questioned Shirou on why he had put upon himself the task of fixing up things for the school. He had told her it was one of the few things he liked doing and left it at that.

So all in all, an average day.

Nearly average.

8

Shirou was returning home from work that day. His body was slightly off with all the lifting and loading of wine and various drinks. He was more than willing to head home and relax the muscles.

Well, thats what a normal teenage boy would do.

Shirou is far from such.

He was currently thinking of what to cook that night. If he recalled correctly, he had made Sakura promise to let him cook this night so he was plotting his course strategy.

Of course, he had forgotten the most important obstacle.

8

Shirou's head barely rose from his food. He only did so to partake in the conversation that is pretty much dominated by his cousin Ikari and his Fuji-nee. He had forgotten that Ikari had a inkling for cooking and such almost cried out against the cruel world as he subjects himself to his relative's brilliant cooking. However, there was something strange during this dinner.

Everytime Shirou happens to look up toward Ikari, Ikari would be looking right back at him. This time, Shirou wanted to grab more sauce for his dumplings and he saw Ikari looking at him with the biggest smirk across his face. Not just any smirk. A truly sadistic smirk. A smirk that shouted, 'You're too easy'. 'Wait, why would his smirk read off like that?' Shirou shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment.

His vision was filled with red. His eyes snapped open and he whipped his head around. There was nothing out of the ordinary and no one noticed Shirou's distress. He brings his attention back to his food and blinks.

There it was again, his eyes closed for the briefest of moments. Within that momentary darkness, it read in large bold red letters.

'You're too easy, Emiya-kun'

Shirou's eyes immediately lock with Ikari's. Ikari held a neutral expression, but his eyes held a glint. 'What was that?' Shirou thought. He returns to his food. A few more bites and his eyes close once more.

'Victory is mine'

The redhead once again stares back at his cousin. There his cousin held a small smirk. 'How is he doing this? What does he mean victory is his?' Shirou was utterly confused. He blinks.

'If you keep this up, your kitchen is already mine.'

'SHOOOOOM'

The atmosphere of the dinning table dropped. Though Fuji-nee and Sakura did not feel it for they were focused on the food and their conversation, Shirou and Ikari had locked eyes.

Shirou now knew his previous statement about Ikari was right. He was the enemy. His objective was clear. Shirou knew what he needed to do.

"Shirou-chan, you're making a scary face again." Shirou corrects his expression into a false smile as he mentions to Fuji-nee that he was thinking of school. Ikari still bore a wide smirk and Shirou did his best to match.

It was on

8

That night, Shirou accepted that it was Ikari's win. After Sakura and Fuji-nee made their leave. Ikari began to instruct the failure turnabout with his form of basics. It wasn't long for Ikari wasn't actually the best teacher himself. Despite that, Shirou now had some tips on how to get his reinforcement down better.

His thoughts were more on plotting a course for reclaiming his beloved kitchen.

8

The moment Shirou's eyes cracked up a centimeter, he shot his eyes open. He saw the familiar ceiling of the shed and shot up from his back. He quickly made to his feet and dashed out the shed. He must hurry before it was too late. Trekking across his courtyard in record time and making a beeline for the kitchen. Ikari was nowhere in sight.

Victory.

As he prepared to make breakfast, he heard Ikari walk into the dinning room. Turning his head, Shirou flashed a victorious smirk at his rival. Ikari could only smile as he made to sit down, "Tadaima" a soft voice stops him from completing this action and the raven-haired magus made for the entrance.

He returns shortly with Sakura following. She is surprised to have been greeted by Ikari, but smiles. It was nice to be greeted when she arrived. Her eyes took notice of Shirou's form in the kitchen, but something forces her to confront him.

"Ano, senpai. Your clothes are pretty dirty." She saw Shirou stiffen while he was about to put on the customary apron. He looks about himself and sees that he is indeed dusty and had patches of dirt over his shirt. His head droops and Sakura suddenly feels like she had just stabbed her senpai.

"Gomenasai senpai, I shouldn't have said anything."

"No worries Sakura, It's my own fault for not cleaning myself. I'll be back." Shirou hangs up the apron and walks past Sakura and was face to face with a smiling Ikari with twinkling eyes. The message was clear.

'Too rash and too impulsive'

Shirou's head dipped further.

8

The redhead returned shortly after changing into cleaner clothes, not yet his uniform, and walks into the dinning room. Sakura was seated along with Fuji-nee and as Shirou was about to sit, he heard Ikari call for him in the kitchen. The boy complied and walked into his former sanctum.

Ikari points at the hanging apron and Shirou puts it on. Ikari had his own apron on and motioned for Shirou to start cutting up the potatoes next to him on the counter. Once more Shirou complied.

"You are definitly new to the game, Emiya-kun." Shirou looks over. "The game?" Ikari nods, "Its a small personal game I like to play when I stay over at people's homes. I call it 'Kitchen Conquest' and as you can see the name speaks for itself" Shirou raises an eyebrow. "You play this game at every house you stay at?" "Yup, its only fun if the place has a prideful chef. I took over the Fujimura kitchens within a week. The cooks there hate me." The two snicker a bit. "So I suppose I'm your next game then?" Ikari nods "Yea, but then you made it alittle too easy. Especially this morning. Like I told you, too rash and too impulsive." Shirou doubles back and smiles. 'And I thought I was just thinking into it too much.'

"So rather than completely dominate your kitchen, I'll teach you the trade. You are my cousin so I'll ease up and teach you about the game. Just don't think I'm giving up on your kitchen though. I still got a reputation to keep." Both cousins look at one another and soon both were sporting very, very sadistic grins.

Ikari may not know it, but this was the first step to what would soon be known as the creation of the Dark Iron Chef. Emiya Shirou would take his lessons to heart and become a sadistic conqueror of kitchens all across the world. He shall employ only the truly dastardly tactics and truly brutal strategies to take over every proud chef's sanctum. It would be the start of the dark ages of kitchen warfare and all will fear and perish in culinary delights by the DARK IRON CHEF!

Both cooks froze in their actions and glance their heads about. Ikari turns to Shirou, "...Did you..." Shirou nods, "...Did you..?" Ikari nods. Both chefs look at one another for a moment before shaking their heads. 'What was that?' were their shared thought.

Shortly after, the dynamic duo bring forth a brilliant breakfast and all was enjoyed. Despite such a great morning for the two females, they would never see that a truly dark war had begun right next to them.

8

The next couple of days came and went fairly quickly. Shirou had familiarized himself with Guinevere and most of Ikari's training, both magical and culinary warfare. He had brought his game to Ikari's half-assed attempts to take his kitchen, but knew he had to improve quick less he bore Ikari out of giving him a handicap.

Sakura had become more accustomed to Ikari's pressence and also took note of the increased frequency of Shirou's cooking along side Ikari. Not that she minds having two men cook for her, but she still wanted to indulge in her former habit. It didn't help that Ikari was very good at making his mother's sweet bread. Oh truly sweet sweet bread.

Alas, despite the warming atmosphere of friendly rivalry and magic. The true purpose of Ikari's pressence finally becomes known.

8

Shirou was going to leave school around the usual time, but was intercepted by his close friend and Sakura's older brother, Matou Shinji, and was convinced to clean up the archery dojo. By the time he had finished, it was dark outside and he should be heading home. Especially when there have been recent murders.

As Shirou made to exit the school grounds, loud cries of metal upon metal drew his attention. He came to the baseball field to see that the origin of the noise was a battle.

A figure coated in blue armor, thin and held firmly to his person. He wielded about a long red spear. His movements were quick and each thrust spelled death, yet none ever came. His opponent, a man in red wielding a sword of light and a sword of darkness. Yin and yang, swords were beautiful. His movements were strict and deliberate, he kept the blue spearman at bay. Flashes of light from each clash of sword on spear with their cries of metal ringing out with each impact. This was incredible. It was unbelieveable.

He shouldn't be here.

"Shirou, we should leave." Guinevere's voice rises from his clothes. Shirou nods and makes one more lingering glance towards the fight before stepping to leave. His foot hits a can.

Despite the ongoing battle, that sound alone appeared to ring louder. The two warriors stop and both focus in Shirou's direction. Shirou ran after a few moments hesitation.

He shouldn't have been here.

His steps made for the school building, but Guinevere informed him that would only lead to him being trapped. So he opted for the school gate and try for home. He looks over his back to see if any of the warriors were giving chase, "Shirou! Infront!" He turns his head to see the warrior in blue stand before him. The school gate was ten more meters behind him.

"I'll have to say, you ran pretty fast for a human. Don't take this personally, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." The blue spearman says as he thrusts out his spear with one hand.

Time slowed.

Shirou rose his arms.

He was going to die.

No.

The spear crashed upon a very transparent cyan barrier, absorbing the entire power of the thrust. Both the spearman and redhead's eyes widen.

"Get past him Shirou. NOW!" Shirou extended one arm towards the blue warrior and the magical ferret pops out of his cuff. Her mouth opens and a vast torrent of blue fire flies past the barrier towards the spearman. He dodged to the side and made to stab once more at the redheaded spectator, but saw the boy had moved. He had ran through the flames unharmed and was already past the school gate.

The spearman's brow furrowed heavily.

The chase has begun.

He jumped quickly out of the school grounds after the boy.

Where was once standing was then occupied by a twin tail raven-haired girl in a red overcoat. Her eyes narrowed upon the escaping spearman. She needed to hurry.

"Archer, we're going" She says as she makes her run. With a leap, she rises up and never comes back to earth. She is held by the man in red and the two give chase to the chaser.

8

Shirou had made it home in world record time, fear had been his inspiration of the sprint, and now he was home. Despite the situation, he still followed his home ettiquette and took his shoes off before stepping onto the hardwood floors of his entrance. There he noticed that there was only one pair of shoes resting.

Ikari's shoes.

Shortly after he had made that deduction, Ikari came into the entrance. His face was furrowed into a scolding expression. Shirou had figured that Guinevere had already inform Ikari of what is going on.

"Ikari, are Sakura or Fuji-nee here?" Shirou watches as Ikari shakes his head. "I've already sent them home. Told them you would be later than usual." He motions for Shirou to follow him. The two come into the dinning room. "Emiya-kun, are you certain that the spearman didn't come after you?" Shirou shakes his head, "I'm not quite sure." Ikari sighs, Shirou notices that his cousin has his jacket on. He was about to say something, but the lights went out.

Shirou stiffens.  
He couldn't see.  
All he can hear was his and Ikari's breathing.

A hand grips his shoulder, "Emiya-kun, get behind me" Shirou complies with Ikari's order. He shuffles about and his eyes soon adjust to the darkness, he can start to make out his surrounds of the dinning room. He also saw that Ikari had a dark grey sword in his right hand and he hadn't noticed it, but Ikari's magus crest was glowing on his exposed arm.

Suddenly Ikari shoves Shirou back with his left and swipes away with his right. A 'clang' cry of metal rings throughout the room, his attacker had come for their left. The man steps back and around to the front of the two boys, it is the blue spearman from before. His red spear practically calls for their blood.

"You sure can run. I'll give you that. I ask though, please stop being a hassle and just die." His voice was a blade and his intent was overwhelming. They matched well with his red eyes.

"Shirou, get to the workshop." Shirou looks to the back of Ikari's head. "Now." With that Shirou steps back and spins on his heel. He could make out several cries of weapons colliding. He rushes out of the estate into the courtyard and a large crash draws his attention back. Right next to him, the dinning room door to the outside bursts open and Ikari is flung from the home. He skids across the ground, but quickly recovers onto his feet. His grey sword glints in the moonlight. Shirou quickly returns his vision to the busted door to see the blue spearman standing near him, his focus solely on Shirou himself.

"Hoy! Do not ignore me teme, I am more than willing to fight you here!" Ikari shouts at the spearman. "I will love to fight you, but first things first. No witnesses." The spearman readies his weapon. Shirou hopes the barrier will save him once more.

It never came.

A red spear came.

But it was not from the blue warrior.

The warrior quickly steps back to avoid the oncoming spear, it plunges into a pillar between Shirou and the spearman. Shirou's eyes first move to Ikari, whose right arm extends from his body in a throwing form, and then moves back toward the spearman. The warrior's eyes only focus upon the spear in the pillar, it is the exact same spear he holds in his hands. He turns to Ikari, but quickly leaps back.

"Sagitta Aqua" the more prominent magus cried as his already extended hand bears his glowing crest. White-blue bolts of light expell from his palm, four in total, towards the azure warrior. Ikari quickly moves before Shirou and grasps the red spear.

"Shirou! Get to the shed!" Without a moments pause, Shirou is running. Once more metal meets metal behind him and he runs into his shed. His hand reaches to shut the door.

It doesn't shut.

Metal Clashes.

It doesn't close.

Screeches reach the skies.

His hand won't close.

Breaths are taken and lost.

Shirou can't close the door.

He can't close the door. His body refuses to listen. No. He doesn't want to close the door. He doesn't want to hide. He turns and faces the clash of spear and sword. He wants to watch. He wants to support. He wants to fight. Little did he know, a red circle and pentagram glows dimly around his feet.

8

Ikari watches Shirou turn. The raven-head plucks the spear from the pillar, twirls it, and then swings the twirling spear behind him. It spins and impacts a thrust, throwing it off to the side. The screech of metal does not reach Ikari until he thrusts his spear after quick recovery. His aim is the chest of his opponent.

The spearman's chest is punctured.  
Incorrect: the spearman retreats to the side.

Ikari's head is smashed.  
Incorrect: the magus ducks and rolls under the retaliatory swipe.

Ikari sets to his feet quickly, he leaps over a low swipe, and returns with his own high swing. The blue warrior ducks under the attack and thrusts his weapon forward. Ikari slides the non-bladed end of his spear across his body and turns. The opposing spear slides across the haft of his own spear and lightly grazes his upper arm, cutting the sleeve open. The spear does not taste flesh and Ikari leaps back. The spearman does not let Ikari escape cleanly, he whips back his spear. Ikari suddenly loses his grip and his spear rips out of his hands and off to one side of the courtyard.

Ikari leaps back and reaches into the back of his jacket. The thrust comes and Ikari pulls out a black and grey metal rectangular bar. Both of his hands grip the bar and it becomes white and glows. It morphs and shifts from its original shape into one that any can identify as a sword, the glow fades and replacing it is a dark grey long sword. The sword is straight and places across Ikari's head to deflect the oncoming spear.

The blue warrior, Lancer, is genuinely surprised by his opponent's actions. He didn't expect him to be fairly skilled with a spear, his own spear nonetheless, and now seen the boy draw arms with a sword. That was a very good sign for the warrior. It meant this could be an interesting fight.

Ikari shoves the spear off and swipes his sword at the other's throat. His reach wasn't long enough and the warrior had backed up. He doesn't let up, he quickly charges, and stays within the spearman's guard. His strikes are quick and accurate, but his opponent is just as good if not better. His strikes never hit their mark.

The spearman advances on him. His body readies for another thrust. A step to the side and the the spear flies. The boy spins just enough for the spear to avoid impaling him, but not enough to get away unscathed. The red spear sinks slight teeth into his left arm, but he manages to bash the spear away. Rather than retreat, the magus charges in once more. His strikes fast and accurate; to the untrained eye, he would appear wildly swinging, but his opponent knew better. If not for his speed, he would've been cut many times already.

Ikari was sweating, how many times has he struck out to meet nothing but air and steel? Another thrust from his opponent has him sent rolling, his sword is raised to meet a slam from above. He slides his sword down the spear towards the lancer's hands. Of course, Lancer wasn't one to be injured by such a tactic and leaped back before the blade made it to his fingers.

He didn't expect his spear to be heavier.

His eyes widen as the magus had gripped the spear near the blade and pulled himself much closer than Lancer is comfortable with. The blade is thrust toward his face, he jukes quickly to the right. Its just enough as the blade only grazes his cheek. His eyes narrow slightly and a smirk is spread upon his lips.

'This kid's got spunk.' The blue-haired blue spearman couldn't hope for more favorable confrontation.

Alas, he has his orders.

His free hand snaps up and grasps the the thrusting sword hand and his left leg shoots toward the magus. It crashes into the left side of his chest, an audible crack is heard, and the boy is sent flying.

He doesn't crash or tumble like Lancer believed he would. The magus hit the ground in a roll, one somersault, and he was back on his feet. Sort of. He was crouched down, his left hand held the sword, and his right held his left side. Fractured ribs.

Lancer knew it was slightly dirty, but the kid had done his own unhonorable trick.

Rather than dwell on it, Lancer charges forward, his spear ready to impale. Ikari quickly gets to his feet and deflects oncoming thrusts and swipes with his sword. Each breath is pain.

Despite reinforcing his lungs, he still couldn't shake off the pain. Each full blocked strike rippled through his arm and into his chest. More pain would arrive that way, he wasn't going to last too long in this fight. His options aren't looking to good. Flash forging would do great if he had time to do so. If he had been alittle more focused on the fight and not on Shirou, he would've been able to keep his spear.

Lancer was curious. His opponent is obviously hurt, but there was no sign of him giving up in this fight. That was alright with him, but his master wouldn't be happy, the damn coward. Disregarding that, his opponent seems to only to lose slight speed and power, but he is compensating with manueverability and smart deflections. He is experienced, far beyond what someone his age can be.

"Results of a misspent youth." Lancer lets out with a smile under his breath.

He launches another assault, determined to bring an end to what should've been done long ago. A flurry of thrusts, inescapable to humans, even abnormal onces. The unexpected occurs.

Before he begins his assault, Ikari charges. His strikes become unseen, unheard, but not unfelt. He quickly forces the lancer on the defensive, his strikes holding no pattern, and that was evident as Lancer could not determine where to block next.

Why.

Why was the injured magus suddenly fighting with strength anew.

Had he been holding back?

Lancer needed to calm his thoughts, he was internally giddy of the fight re-engaging, but like before, his master wanted him to end it fast. His eyes caught something. The warrior-magus no longer held his side, did he heal it? No, he wasn't breathing.

There was no rise or fall of the chest, no exhaling from thrusts, and no tell-tale signs of his onslaught ending. He was withholding air to keep the pain of breathing from innuring his ability.

Admirable, but not good enough.

An overhead strike, instead of deflecting like before, Lancer shunts his weapon's haft back at the oncoming weapon. This forces the weapon up and back and Lancer throws out his left into Ikari's midsection. He flies back, hits the ground in a roll, and quickly returns to his feet, but this time, he clutches his side with his right hand and drops to a crouch.

This fight was over.

8

Shirou stood aghast. He couldn't believe his eyes. This far from the fight from before, but this was as close as possible. If the fight before was a clash of the titans, this fight was a battle between a game's protagonist and the antagonist. It's not as unbelieveable as the first, but it feels twice as suspensful.

Each clash of steel entralled him further into the fight. He had clenched his fist each time a strike would befall his cousin and each time his cousin gets a strike in, he would pump his fist in joy.

When the second kick sends Ikari flying, it dawned on Shirou that the fight was over. Ikari was holding his injured side once more, anymore and Ikari would be killed.

Killed.

Killed for him.

Ikari had protected him.

His life wasn't worth protecting.

Shirou cannot accept that someone is going to die for him.

He has to help.

But how?

The back of Shirou's right hand had begun to burn. He quickly withdraws the fist and cradles it close to his body. Three red insignias were ecthed into his skin and glowed vibrantly. He also noticed the ground under him was glowing red, bright and moving. A pentagram with a circle around it, it spiraled, and he could feel a vast energy flood from it.

It grew brighter and brighter til suddenly a white light engulfed all that he could see.

8

Ikari held his broken ribs. There wasn't much he could do now and his opponent knew it. It didn't settle well with him. The blue lancer stood non-chalant, his spear in his right hand, and his face held a truly amused expression, his red eyes twinkling.

"Truly. Truly you are a superb fighter. A mere magus that could stand and actually injure a servant. A heroic spirit nonetheless." The lancer's voice is full of mirth and his expression supports this. "Had this been any other situaton, boy. I would've gladly fought you straight up. No tricks and no rules." He beams his smile toward the fallen magus.

Ikari returns it ten-fold.

Lancer's smile widens, "Alas" then dulls to a smaller smirk "Orders are orders. Goodbye, magus knight." His thrust is haphazard. It is not fully commited and comes at only a quarter of his normal thrusting speed. Why would he need to do so full speed? It wasn't like the boy was going anywhere.

A quick flash of light goes unnoticed, but its aura overwhelmed both.

Ikari could feel a large pressence behind, but he didn't turn. The aura had closed the distance between them in a second and he could feel a gale of wind blow over him. A flutter of blue cloth covers his vision. A clang of metal reaches his ears. He finally refocuses his sight.

Blue.

The figure wore a blue dress.

A metal breastplate that was grey and yet also silver.

Grey silver metal gauntlets engulfed the arms.

What stood out more, was the blond hair tied into a bun. They belonged to a soft face with strong emerald eyes. There was also a slight ahoge, but that shouldn't matter right now.

What stood before the magus was a strong female knight whose hands held a distortion of air.

"Servant Lancer. I, Servant Saber, shall be your opponent." Her voice carries will and power like none Shirou and Ikari has ever encountered.

8

A/N: Well, Once more a cliffy. I really don't know chapter endings. Is this really a cliffy? Who knows, you'll probably tell me. Now for the questies I'm expecting. Ikari's abilities. Flash forging is a temp name I'm going with until I can determine whether or not my char's abilities are already existent or If I had just made something new.

Summary of flash forging:

Ikari can sense materials needed for weapons he plans to make within a 20 to 30 meter diameter around him. He then can call these materials to his hand and either use reinforcement to forge them into weapons or some other morphing magecraft that makes them into weapons. They are not total disturbances to the world and as such will not be corrected. They are simply materials that have gone through a highly sped up process of forging.

The third ability linked to this shall be revealed in the next chapter.

I want to know, is this already a spell that exists? Slightly different than Projection I believe.  
Could this possibly be a marble phantasm-esque ability What is a good name for it other than Flash forging.

Well I'm done and I gotta catch some rest.

Read and review. Teach me some nasuverse stuff.


	3. Blue, Red, and Black

A/N:

Chapter 3, this is going well. I actually wanted this first part here and the parts slightly after to be part of the last chapter, but time constraints and sleepyness had prevented that. Now I realize that I'm not that quite thought out on the storyline I'm going to project, but I'm doing what I can.

I'll be doing abit of Nasu-research in my inbetweens. So like before, bear with my lack of knowledge.

Oh and please do review. I would like to know opinions and critiques.

* * *

Chapter 3 Blue, Red, and Black

"Servant Lancer. I, Servant Saber, shall be your opponent."  
The azure maiden's voice is soft, yet bears a strong undertone. Its not often a woman bears a strong voice like hers, but then again, not often would one find women bearing armor of old and a sword of air.

The blue spearman before her can only widen his red eyes. His happy-go-lucky attitude long gone. He truly is in need of understanding. 'Of course. The least problematic one becomes the true problem. Should've killed him first.' His thoughts rage upon this discovery of a new opponent.

He wanted nothing more than to go back fighting the magus knight, at least that would've been an entertaining fight.  
Once more he regrets playing dirty in his prior fight.

"Prepare yourself, Lancer. Here I come."  
With her shout, The blonde-haired warrior, Saber, charges forward. Her hands shift to her right sight, the distortion of air still emanates from her hands. The lancer reacts, his spear set bisecting his body diagonally. He blocks the overhead strike from the blond, the night sky lights up from the steel on steel impact. The courtyard is filled with constant cries of steel.

Ikari and Shirou remain still, awe easily spotted across their faces and they could only watch the fight before them evolve into more masterful swings and thrusts. It is a single motion performance before them, the clash of steel orchestrating a symphony of death.

The blue lancer is cleaved from his shoulder diagonally to his waist.  
Incorrect: His spear blunts off the blonde's distortion.

The blonde saber's gut is split.  
Incorret: Her "sword" impedes the swipe with a downward stab.

A shunt from the blue spearman launches the blue swordswoman back a few lengths, but this seems to be go against the spearman for the swordswoman now charges in with her blade of air swinging far more rapidly. Multiple strikes. Raw power. Despite the woman's small stature, her blows are accurate and powerful. A smash from overhead leads into a thunderous rising strike.

It launches the spearman into the air.

Which is immediately corrected and lands without incident.

It had its affect however.

"Why hide your weapon you coward? What is it that you wield? Reveal it and fight like a true warrior!" The lancer barks, evidently he is quite agitated.

"My weapon? It maybe a lance, a sword, an axe, or even a club." Her curt response only seems to infuriate the lancer further.

Ikari saw Lancer's eyes were dangerously narrow, the azure spearman had been having a hard time against the Saber's weapon. Despite it being invisible, he had roughly estimated the weapon to be under six or seven feet. It being a lance was marked off his list along with a club seeing as she obviously has an edge to her weapon.

But then again, he already knew what weapon she wields.

The two azure warriors clash once more, spear meets air, distortion delfects thrusts, and spear blocks swipes.

it goes on and the two magi continue to watch. Each unable to tear their eyes from the battle. Shirou's world soley focused upon the blonde whereas his cousin watches the the meetings of steel and air. To Ikari, the fight itself is more important than the participants.

Though he can't deny that the blonde is attractive.

A demon-strength thrust knocks the azure knight back and she lands just past Ikari, her stature still of one that can go on for hours more.

The lancer, however appears to be in a trance. Eyes closed, he held an expression of deep thought. It was a brief expression as it shortly changed into one of disappointment.

"Well...Damn. Looks like my master is getting impatient. We will have to finish this now, eh Saber?" He is in a fairly relaxed position, slightly over ten or so feet away. Ikari sees 'Saber' right herself and fix on a stance. She prepares for whatever onslaught the lancer is preparing.

Ikari drags his eyes back toward the blue lancer. His azure back was to them and his spear was behind the body, bisecting him from his right shoulder down to his left abdomen. His head is to them, but his eyes are shut. What drew the most attention for Ikari is the spear itself. Dark red wisps of smoke begin to spiral around the spear from tip to end. It creates a terrible maelstrom around the red spear and truly gives it a frightening aura.

'Not aura...prana' Ikari corrects his thoughts as he identifies the entity that surrounds the weapon. 'He's going to use his noble phantasm?' His mind quickly searches its bank on his knowledge of crimson spears. There are many in that category, but he needs only one, and finding it is taking too long.

A dreadful aura envelopes the azure warrior and the two magi. A sinking feeling is shot through their spines.

Someone is going to die.

The blue lancer's eyes open wide, his face neutral, and his entire attention upon Saber. He charges forward, his spear ready obviously for a thrust. Saber stands at the ready, her blade rests at a fifty degree standard sword stance. She awaits her oponents move.

"GAE!-" The blue spearman shouts, Ikari's eyes widen.

'That narrows down to two spears! Either one will end this fight badly for her.' Ikari's thoughts rage in his head, his mind set upon an action. It would appear that the blonde swordswoman did not understand what was to happen.

His crest flares, his left hand throbs, and his sword shines white once more.

First stage: Apparition/ Summoning Unnecessary - Catalyst already in hand

Second stage: Reinforcement/ Forging Shape requirement = Dagger nine inches Material = Steel and Leather Process start

The white object in his hand shifts its outline from a sword of four feet length into a smaller outline of what can only be identified as a dagger of nine inches. A short blade is formed, four inches of a slight curved blade single edge. A spike from the blade's base juts from the from down over the hilt and ends just before contact with the end. This creates an improvised hand guard. The blade and hilt begin to dull from a pure white into a putrid black. The blade becomes a terrible grey whilst the hilt and its guard turn black.

The lancer draws closer, Saber remains still. Her mind ready to counter Lancer's attack. His spear is about to be thrust, that is what her experience tells her, her instincts percieve the attack to be at her low guard.

Final/Third stage: Enchantment/ Legend recreation Enchantment = ?

This is the most crucial stage.

Failure means the death of Saber

Success means Lancer's defeat

Red runes engrave themselves into the grey blade, an aura unfelt materializes around the dark and terrible dagger. Ikari must make his move. He will.

The lancer's thrust is low, Saber aims her distortion low. It is the right decision, it is Lancer's lost.

"BOLG!~" His shout changes the rules. Not the rules, the players. The sword of 'air' is still aimed downward, but the spear is no longer at the swordswoman's feet. It is now at her chest, more specifically, her heart.

Saber quickly withdraws her counter and forces her feet to kick backward, retreat in the face of certain death. She begins to raise her 'sword' in the path of the spear. She would never reach it, but she doesn't try.

Movement from her right stops her motions. She can see the wounded magus from before lunge at her, a dark dagger poised to slash her. No, not her, the spear.

'What can that weapon do against a noble phantasm?' her thoughts roam. Something she doesn't quite understand in the final moments of oncoming death. 'So early into the war and I am finished. Truly disgraceful.'

"Magus unknown! That whom is cursed of undying thirst, sate thy need. Reap my enemy's weapon of power. Drink! Krentel!"

Both Shirou and Saber watch as Ikari slashes down with his black dagger, which runes were now brightly glowing, upon the spears head.

The impossible has happened once more. The rules have changed once again.

A slight flash of light signifies contact and the black wips that spiral around the red spear suddenly explode outward. They pass through everyone harmlessly and return to the shadows of wence they came. The red spear grazes off to the right, just past the blonde swordsman.

Lancer was surprised, no bewildered, beyond all possible thought. A sure fire killing strike, disabled by a small dagger. Saber was in the same boat, she swore that she had fallen for the noble phantasm. She immediately raised her sword, just able to miss grazing Ikari's falling form.

For Ikari, things were slightly different. He had a slight momment of joy. He had quickly achieved a near-perfect flash forge and used the ever-thirsty noble phantasm, Krentel, and absorbed the prana that was needed for Gae Bolg's heart seeking strike to be complete.

Keyword being near, Krentel did its job of drinking all the prana from Gae Bolg, however Krentel is still created upon lesser materials than Gae Bolg, being a replica rather than the actual noble phantasm. So the momment Gae Bolg was drained, Krentel could only shatter. Shatter is putting it mildly as it actually exploded, shards ripping into Ikari's left hand and wrist.

Lancer quickly sees Saber preparing her 'sword' and pulls back his spear. Sliding the spear through his hands and reseting his footwork, he quickly brings his weapon up to block the distortion that is coming down upon him. The impact roots him still and he throws his left leg out.

He kicks the still falling form of Ikari into Saber and jumps back. He then leaps away further onto the top of one of the estate's walls. Saber spares Ikari a quick glance before stepping over him in preparation.

"Gae Bolg? Are you the hound of Ulster, Cu Chulainn?" Saber's voice belies awe and curiousity. Lancer snorts.

"To think my identity discovered so early. I would've thought the servant to be more of a hassle, turns out the kid is more so." He pauses slightly and quickly composes himself. "My master is truly a coward. Very well, I'll be retreating for now. If you wish to continue this fight, Saber, you need only follow me. You will die." With that, the blue spear leaps off into the shadows. Saber quickly charges after and leaps onto the wall.

Shirou finally snaps out of his stupor and rushs toward Ikari. He is met with a wave from the downed magus.

"Go after her! I'm alright. Stop her from doing something stupid." Shirou quickly stares as Ikari for a moment before setting after the azure warrior.

Ikari musters the strength to get back onto his feet. He slowly makes his way back into the Emiya estate.

* * *

Shirou quickly dashes through the damaged dinning room, making a near track-worthy stride over the table and through to the entrance hall. When he made it to the foyer, he could hear a screech of steel outside. He quickly dashes out the entrance, forgoing his shoes entirely.

He sprints out the door and his gut tells him to look right. His eyes catch the blonde warrior crossing 'blades' with the man in red back from the school. Despite having two blades at his disposal, it is evident that he is losing the fight. A few more slashes and his guard his open, a final overhead slash from the blonde comes down upon him. It cuts through his left shoulder into his center. The warrior in red will die.

"ARCHER DISPERSE!" A girl also in red near the fight calls out. The momment her command left her lips, the man in red fades into nothingness in a blink of an eye. The blonde warrior stops her 'blade' short of clashing with the street and lines up her weapon toward the lone girl. She charges.

"Yamete!"

Saber feels a strong pull and her 'blade' stops a foot short of skewering the girl in red. Her gaze shoots back towards the redhead magus from before. Her eyes solely focused upon his form, a angered expression clear on her face. Shirou felt an unknown fear drive up his spine, but could not grasp on to it.

'Cough'

Both Shirou and Saber turn to face the girl in red, whom Shirou now recognizes.

"Yo Emiya-kun, looks like I have you to thank for saving my life, eh." One Tohsaka Rin greets the redheaded boy with a wave. Her casual attitude being an attempt to hide the tension she had when she was under the belief her death was immenient.

"Tohsaka? Tohsaka-san w-w-what are you doing here?" Shirou asks as the girl approaches him with her black twin tails swaying slightly.

"Ano, Emiya-kun, are you not going to invite me in?"

* * *

The trio consisting of Shirou, Rin, and Saber make their way into the estate with latter remaining behind slightly. They are met with a slightly unnerving sight.

"Ohayo, gomen for the mess." A slightly bloody Ikari holding his left abdominal and cradling his left arm was leaning on a wall infront of the trio. An unnatural smile across his lips.

"You must be Tohsaka Rin, a pleasure to meet you." He smiles a bit wider. Rin's blue eyes were wide and she immediately slipped off her shoes before approaching the wounded magus. "How did this happen?" Her voice worry-filled, Ikari continues to smile. "It's nothing too serious, just alittle reminder." Shirou shakes his head before also approaching his cousin. "Ikari-san lets get you patched up."

Shirou shuffles Ikari back into the dinning room with both Tohsaka and Saber in tow. "Ne Emiya-kun, nice window to the yard?" The raven-haired girl directs toward the destroyed door. Ikari chuckles while Shirou groans. Shaking her head, Rin walks to the destroyed door, and with a wave of her hand, the pieces of the door outside flew back into their rightful places. What was a demolished wooden frame now becomes a full sliding door once more.

Shirou stands agape from such casual display of magecraft, the school's idol had just repaired the damage in an instant. 'She's in a whole other level than I am.' The boy thought as he watches the idol again comes to Ikari. This time she held her hand over his crimson left hand and watched the gashes begin to close. The blood remained as the wounds from the shattered noble replica become undone, some shards unearth themselves from his flesh before fading into dust. This caught the eye of Tohsaka, but she said nothing of it and continued to heal the wounds. Soon only red marks gave away that he had been hurt.

Tohsaka smiles at her work before promptly taking a seat at the dinning room's lone table. Shirou snaps out of his stupor and walks into the kitchen to make tea. The blue dressed Saber also kneels at the table and is shortly joined by Ikari.

"So, I know your name, but who, exactly, are you?" Rin asks as she leans onto the table with her right hand cradling her chin. "I am Emiya-kun's cousin, Kazehara Ikari, and I'm just visiting." A smile ever present. "Cousin? Didn't think Emiya-kun had any. Where are you from Kazehara-san?" "Kyoto, use to be close with Emiya-kun when we were smaller."

Shirou walks in with a tray filled with cups and a kettle. He sets the tray onto the table and pours everyone a cup. Rin takes her tea and chances a sip before closing her eyes. Composing herself, she opens her eyes and directs them toward Shirou.

"So Emiya-kun, thanks again for saving my life. Didn't think you would use up a command sigil for that." Shirou's eyebrow raises and Rin raises her left hand which sports two red cresent symbols on the back of her hand. Shirou then raises his own left hand and sees two triangular marks. The blonde warrior also sees this as she is sitting to the right of the lesser magus.

"I see, so that makes you my master then." Shirou turns to face the blonde. "I wasn't sure before. Until now, I still held a belief that he was my master." She says looking towards Ikari. He smiles before shaking his head after putting down his tea. "I'm just a magus who had lost against a spirit. Shirou summoned you." Rin raises her eyebrow at this and her eyes catch Shirou nodding on this comment.

"Hold on, you fought a servant?" The raven girl asks, eyes analytical

"If thats what that man in blue was, then yea. Didn't put up too much of a fight anyway." Ikari takes another sip of his tea.

"Still was able to nullify his noble phantasm. Thats more than enough." The blonde comments as she herself takes a sip. This causes Rin to gulp her tea, slightly singeing her throat, and fought the urge to cough. Rubbing her throat, she clears it and looks at Shirou.

"I didn't know you were a magus aswell Emiya-kun. You've must be pretty good if you've been hiding your pressence. I've figured you were normal like everyone else." A natural smile displayed across her lips. Shirou nervously sips more into his tea as he thought about wording his answer. However, Ikari did it for him.

"Emiya-kun isn't a good magus, he's actually pretty bad." Shirou snorts his tea and coughed slightly. He glares at Ikari, whom only shrugged his shoulders. "Not that I'm any better, I'm more of a fighter than a magus anyway." Rin looks toward Shirou for confirmation and blanches when he nods.

"So this pressence of yours is what it is unhinderd?" again another nod. Rin pinches the bridge of her nose. 'I was almost killed by a third-rate magus, that speaks volumes of my abilities' Sensing a dreadful aura about, Ikari quickly refills Rin's cup.

Catching her attention, Rin glances back at Ikari.  
"So you are here to visit Emiya-kun? Why haven't you given notice that you were coming onto my land? I am the sole Tohsaka overwatch of Fuyuki city. There is a punishment for treading across my land unannounced." A glint is almost visible in her eyes.

"I did send word. A week prior to my arrival, I sent a letter of my intent and purpose alongside a compromise. I also called the day I came into Japan to affirm that I was coming. Did you not recieve them?"

Rin froze, she remembered ignoring phone calls earlier that week and hadn't checked her mail in awhile. A snort drew everyone's attention, but no one, but Rin knew the source.

'I knew I should've read those letters.'

Composing herself, she smiles a sly smirk. "Gomenasai Kazehara-san, but it must've slipped my notice." She turns to Shirou. "Emiya-kun, I suppose you are a participant in the Grail War?" Shirou matches her look and was absolutely confused.

"What war? There's a war? In Fuyuki?" Rin could only shake her head.

"You don't know? How did you summon a servant without knowing?" She had placed both hands on the table propping up her height slightly.

"I don't even know how I even did that. She just came out of a light from nowhere." Shirou was beginning to get nervous.

"So you know nothing about the Holy Grail War?" A shake of the head "How about you?" Ikari also shakes his head, this was news to him. Rin let out a breath of exasperation before recomposing herself.

"Well then, lets go." She stands up. "Go? Go where? Tonight?" Shirou asks as he also makes to his feet. The blonde warrior also rises to her feet. "I'm going to take you to the church, this war's mediator will bring you up to speed." She begins to walk to the front door, motioning for Shirou to come along.

"Ne Tohsaka-san, is it really a smart idea to head out?" The twin-tailed girl turns on her heel and sees that Ikari remains seated at the table, tea still being sipped. "You say there's a war going about, right? Then I believe it would be better off to stay in. If there are more like the man in blue from before, I don't know if I can pull off another fight like that." Rin continues to look at Ikari.

Shirou was crowded into his thoughts. If they go out, would they find a worse enemy than that 'Lancer'? Ikari had fought and lost against one and without his help, the blonde warrior would've also fallen to the man in blue. If there would be stronger enemies than that, they wouldn't be able survive past the night. It would be for the best to stay in.

"Actually, I would prefer that option Tohsaka-san." Rin turns towards Shirou and sighs. She had a two to one vote and she had been overruled.

"You happen to be knowledgable about this war Tohsaka-san, perhaps you can summarize whatever Emiya-kun and myself have gotten caught up in?" Rin took her seat at the table once more, followed shortly by both Shirou and the blonde. "If it's too troublesome, perhaps I could interest you in my research?" That got the raven magus perked up as she notes Ikari holding up a black notebook, generic in all but symbolism.

* * *

"Kazehara-san, what do you have in that notebook?" Shirou asks.

Tohsaka Rin told the two magus what she knew of the Holy Grail War. Seven masters summon seven servants or Heroic Spirits. These masters compete against one another in life or death conflicts with their respective servants to be the last one standing to achieve the ultimate prize.

"Putting it simply? My workshop."

The Holy Grail. A magical artifact gifted with one true ability. To grant any wish the rightful victor choses.

"Your workshop? Why would you let Tohsaka-san read it?"

Shortly after summarizing what she knew, Tohsaka decided to take a gander into the notebook. Immediately she had figured out the notebook's deception. It was blank, the pages all blank, but she saw through it. Ikari had allowed her to see a few pages of magecraft research he had come across in his life and only those. The necessary information would flood into the pages and she would begin to read into each spell with vigor that Shirou has never seen from the school idol.

"She can't read everything in it, only what I allow her to read. Besides, she could make more sense out of some of those spells than I could."

Tohsaka Rin had left the Emiya household despite both male's objections, saying that her own servant would be able to get her home safely. She had also informed Shirou that the next time that the two met, they were to be enemies.

"Thats amazing Kazehara-san." Shirou continues to look at his cousin before turning towards the elephant in the room, the blonde warrior.

Turning to the girl in blue and grey armor, Shirou begins to fiddle with his cup of tea.

"Like before, you are my master. I am servant Saber, I've come from the void known as the throne of heroes to become your sword, master. I pledge my loyalty to you and promise to win this war." She says with much conviction. Shirou could only nod his head for he is speechless.

"Ah, well this is Shirou and I'm Ikari. It is nice to meet you and I'm sure Shirou feels the same." A genuine smile plastered on his face. He pulls out his cellphone from his jacket and flips the screen, he shows it to Shirou whom confirms that its now midnight.

A short argument about sleeping arangements consisting of both Shirou and Saber started shortly after Shirou announced his intent to sleep. After a few heated words and smart retorts, Saber agrees to sleep into a connecting room with Shirou.

Ikari doesn't turn in for another few hours. He had taken notice upon his arrival the barrier that surrounds the Emiya estate and had finally decided to make some adjustments.

In the early hours of the next day, he made his way into his self-claimed room and plops down on to the futon.

"I'll let Emiya-kun have breakfast..." Are the last words before drifting off.

Chapter end.

* * *

A/N:

Arisen! Arisen! You've been neglecting your duties!

Shut up! I knew naming you Tohsaka Rin wasn't going to help me remember to write.

As you can see, I've been alittle distracted by the new game, Dragon's Dogma. It is FREAKING AWESOME!. Loving it so far and so totallly called a Fate Stay Night character being in the top 5 pawns. GO SABER!

I may have rushed the ending of this chapter a bit and I didn't go as far as I wanted. Finding it alittle hard to maintain the writing sessions and my outlining isn't going to well past a point. I'll make do with what I can and hope to correct as I go.

I NEED REVIEWS. I thank Lenkish for his review and still planning out how I'm going to do my little twists to this thing.

Also, would my OC's abilities happen to already exist other than Shirou's projection being a possibility.

Flash Forging is what it is going to be called for now until I can think of a better name.

Anyway, I'm gonna get started on Chapter 4.


	4. Reconsideration

**Chapter 4: Reconsideration**

The Emiya household awakens to an attractive smell sweeping in from the kitchen to the rest of the estate. The home only containing four residents, the last to rise happens to be a blonde. Her nose is the first to wake and the rest of the body follows. Rising from white blankets to a dim room of white walls and brown wooden supports, the lone body floats with the scent as its reel, pulling it away from blissful sleep. Away from the dim room into bright hallways, the still-dreaming blonde warrior continues to float by, her toes barely registering the cold floor. A step into the Emiya dinning room reveals one of the other occupants of the estate, a brown-haired teen who appears to be reading intently into a worn-brown journal before him on the table. He is scribbling rapidly and chances the occasional glance of towards the courtyard. Sounds of a metal clinking and clanking float from the kitchen and is the source of the scent the had brought the blonde warrior here.

"Good morning Saber-san, take a seat. Emiya-kun should be done in a moment." the brown-haired Ikari says as he continues to scribble into his journal. Saber took her seat across from the magus and maintained a firm kneeling position and sat upon her heels. Ikari glanced up towards the girl before him, no longer was she entombed in her silver armor or blue dress, now she wore a simple white blouse and an average length blue skirt. It all removed the presence of a warrior and replaced by a foreign sweetheart.

Appearances can be deceiving.

"Food's ready. Ikari-kun, mind setting the table?" a chipper voice from the kitchen calls out. Ikari sets down his journal down and walks into the kitchen. Moments later, he returns with a handful of plates and bowls alongside utensils. Sets them upon the table and retrieves the small rice cooker from the kitchen and sets it beside himself as he takes his seat once more. The younger red-headed magus soon appears from the sweet-smelling sanctuary bearing a pot full of enjoyable consumables. A slight pause as the red-haired chef took in the appearance of Saber before he set down the food and took the end seat between both Saber and Ikari.

"This smells great Emiya-kun. Itadakimasu!" Ikari says with much gusto. His chopsticks part with a snap.

"Arigato Ikari-kun. Tell me how it is, uh. Saber-san. Itadakimasu" Shirou says with slightly less gusto than his cousin, his eyes still upon the blonde figure.

Saber takes a filled bowl of rice from Ikari and takes some meat from the big pot. There was a good moment of silence as the three dug into their meal.

"...Its good.." It was so soft, neither of the magus caught it. She began to munch down in much more vigor.

Breakfast was nice.

"Tadaima"

"TADAIMA SHIROU! IKARI!"

The three residents froze, well actually only two as the other one paused a moment before digging in more. The two glance towards one another and a mutual agreement was made. Shirou stood up and made his way toward the foyer. Ikari whispered a silent prayer to himself and stood up. He shot his hands toward Saber, scooping her up into his arms, and dashed out of the room. The girl was in so much food frenzy, all she could do was continue eating out of the bowl in hand. Ikari dashed through the hallways and slipped into Shirou's room. He slid open the door leading into Saber's room and plopped the still eating girl down on her futon. Her only reaction to this nonsense was to put forward her hand with the bowl, it was empty.

"You want a refill?" The boy asks as he tries to bring his breath to normal intervals. A nod is all he receives. He gracefully takes the bowl and steps out of the room. Shortly after, he hears a squawk from the room and turns to see an agitated Saber standing before him.

"Why have you taken me back to my room? And have touched me without my consent?! What do yo-ah" A finger presses against her lips as Ikari then turns and his free hand glows slightly pointed towards the door. The room glowed into a slight hue before it subsided. He removed his hand and was given a very deathly glare. "A bounded field to silence the sounds from this room." His eyes match the warrior's only to recoil back as hers seem to level at a devil's rage. "Silence? You are not thinking of doing anything untoward, are you?!" Her small frame bristling.

Ikari's forehead begins to moisten as the pores open slightly. Perhaps he could choose his words more carefully.

"Now Saber, we just need to hide you from mundanes. They are not going to react well to your presence, so for the meantime, you're going to stay out of sight." The blonde's rage did not simmer one bit

"Why is it that you and my master tolerate mundanes trespassing upon this property? Should we not be rid of them?"

"We can't. They are of importance to us. Just for now, let us keep the war behind us while they are here. Which means you stay out of sight."

"...Very well. I still require more sustenance."

"I'll get it right away, my king"

Saber's eyes widen as the magus before her spins on his heels and leaves the room.

"...King..."

* * *

"Shirou-chan! More rice!" The ever constant cry from the tiger of Fuyuki greets Ikari as he returns to the dinning room. Sakura was in the seat that was once occupied by Saber scant seconds earlier. so far none of the girls took notice of some food already eaten. Shirou returns from the kitchen with more food for the hungry tiger woman. Said woman begins to dig through the food with as much vigor as any starved beast. Sakura began her usual pace which would interrupt the tiger at intervals with conversation. Shirou manages some small talk with Sakura about cooking recipes whereas Ikari and Taiga began another debate about his father's work.

"Eroges are not art. Only of few of them count!" Ikari states as he pops a scoop full of rice into his awaiting mouth.

"They are all art! Its the art of love!" Counters the tiger woman before him. Her constant defense of the field of work Ikari's father partakes in was consistent with her devouring of food, often resulting in bits of rice and the such flying about. Amusing.

The two would have gone at it had Ikari not recalled that deep within the estate, a spirit hungers. He had to cut his debate short. Only one way to do so with the adamant tiger.

"Alright, Tai-chan. You know if you keep this up, Shirou is going to finish all of the food." The woman squawked as her eyes graze over the food and just so happens that Shirou was helping himself to another portion of food.

The young boy never had a chance as the woman shrieked.

Ikari took the moment to make his escape with a good sized bowl of rice and meat.

Shirou caught the movement and before he could ask, a sharp yelp escaped his lips. He quickly retracted his wounded hand from the serving bowl to see that Taiga had struck his fingers with her chopsticks. A furious expression upon her face. He could only freeze under that gaze.

"Shirou-chan! I am HUNGRY! Don't take all of the food!"

Shirou began to wither underneath his nee-chan's gaze, he turns to Sakura in hopes of a way out. Sadly, She found it more interesting to help herself to another helping of rice. With nothing to stem the tide of the oncoming wrath, Shirou can only brace himself.

* * *

Shortly after his brush with hell, Shirou and Ikari, who returned just after the punishment, see both Sakura and Taiga off as they attend to their respective duties. Shirou and Ikari then make their way into the shed to continue Shirou's lessons, stopping by Shirou's room only to collect Saber, who still appears to be in a sour mood.

"Today, I'm going to start on another ability. One that you appear to have some skill in Emiya-kun." Ikari starts as Shirou sits crossed-legged in the center of his workshop/shed. Ikari is leaning his back upon a support beam with his foot propped against the wood. His left arm folded across his chest, his right elbow is propped up by his left hand, and he holds up one finger. Saber is near the entrance to the shed, kneeling and resting against the walls, her eyes closed. She was still except for the slight rise of her chest with each breath. "What would this ability be, Ikari-kun?" Shirou asks.

"Magic sensory. One which we both share ability in." Ikari's free hand begins to trace symbols in the air and shortly with the flick of the wrist, a fire sprout from his palm. "Using magecraft creates a displacement upon the world, the magus's actions are unnatural by standard laws so it leaves behind a trace different than others." He closes his hand and extinguishes the flames. A trail of smoke puffs out of his hand. "What mundanes would see is the just the smoke, what we as magic users will perceive is a trace or a hint to something more." He continues as he raises his hand once more. "Most would call it a sixth sense, but in actuality you are just using one of your five senses to interpret prana usage. Sight, smell, taste, touch, or sound are ways how you can interpret prana discharge." Shirou raises his brows before nodding his head. "For today, we will see which one you possess. For myself, sight is my sensor." He points towards his own eyes before a light emanates from his free hand, it takes form into a knife and the light dies down. A generic knife with a grey blade and black handle remains in the elder magus' hand and he throws it at the ground in front of Shirou, it sinks an inch into the floor.

"Now you can test either of your senses on this blade, tell me what element I added to it."

Shirou's eyes run over the steel surface, his irises set on finding anything off about the blade. He couldn't find anything that would standout upon the surface of the blade or within with structural analysis. Deciding that his sensory wasn't with his eyes and that nothing seems off with the feeling of the weapon, touch was off the list as well. Opting out of running his tasting morsel over a sharpened edge, Shirou brought the bland knife just under his nose, and took a quick whiff despite his inner thoughts dictating how silly the action is.

The reaction was instantaneous

Shirou's head flew back as his eyes began to roll inward. His body began to teeter backward, Saber's form leaps to her feet, but continues no further for Ikari's hand raises and he grasps onto Shirou's shoulder. The red haired boy steadies and his eyes roll back into place; a smirk also falls upon his lips.

"Well, can you tell me what I did?" The only answer he got was a shake of the head; which still brought upon a smile. "Didn't expect you to, at least you have the potential. More so than, lets say, runes?"

Shirou frowns and watches the knife fade from his eyes as Ikari releases the od that held the blade together. The sword withers into dust and flutters away, Ikari offers a hand and helps Shirou up to his feet. Their previous weeks have run along in similar fashions compared to this one, whether it being rune studies, sword fighting, or cooking. They still don't know which of the two is better.

With Saber in tow, the three made their way back into the Emiya estate, and two watch as Shirou readies himself in the foyer. There was, however, an argument in play. "Master, I must insist that I accompany you. You would be presenting yourself as a target to the other competitors." "I'll be alright Saber. There will be plenty of normal people about in our school. I don't believe anyone is going to risk exposure like that." "Servant Assassin only needs a moments respite to end you" "I'll be alright Saber." "Master"

Ikari watches the bicker between the two with a slight smirk on his face, 'At long last, its not me with the problem with women'. He steps forward, both individuals pause to look at the tallest of them. "Shirou will be alright Saber-san. Guinevre will no doubt keep him from harm, it will take quite alot to bypass her." Saber's eyes snap towards Shirou, a white ferret then pops out from the boys collar, eliciting a snicker from the boy. The blonde's eyes widen as they narrow upon the creature's form and lock with it's own red irises. "Have faith Saber. Your master is in good hands." Guinevre slithers back within the redhead's clothes. Ikari nods at the boy who then begins to take his leave. Saber watches the boy take off before she turns toward the sole male of the house.

"Who ar-" She starts, "You recognize Guinevre. You should recall that she was his familiar." Saber stares at the boy for long period of time. "So how can I serve my good king Arturia?"

The knight king's eyes widen as the magus in front of her continues to smile at her.

"There are few people in the world that jiji would worship. None more so than King Arturia herself; he had been very vivid in his tales of your image." Ikari watches the information sinks into the blond. His grandfather had been very descriptive of the one individual who has been his inspiration and sole figure for his loyalty. Ikari would be hard-pressed not to recognize the king of knights before him after having been drilled stories and legends all about her, though this did get him a moments of embarrassment for voicing this at a public school.

"He still lives? How is that possible?" Saber asks, "He was a student of magic taught by Merlin." Ikari says as if that was all that needed to be said. "True as that maybe, but even Merlin has-" "If what Jiji recalls, Merlin disappeared thanks to his own experiments into the first or fifth sorcery. I believe Balthasar still walks this plane, I hear he started a magic shop." Ikari had asked his grandfather on what of Melchior and Casper, the other two students of Merlin, but the old man was sullen about them. "A magic shop?" The blonde inquires, "Indeed, he is apparently searching for Merlin's possible descendant or rebirth. I'm suspecting the former according to what Jiji has been saying about the mischievous old wizard." Ikari responds.

Saber continues to stare, wide-eyed, at the boy as he continues to ramble on about old wizards and their tendencies to have their fun at other's expenses. What troubles her the most, however is the knowledge that one of her most loyal warriors continues to exist to this day. This boy, Ikari Kazehara, identifies himself as the grandson of the blademaster of her time; an individual known by many in her kingdom as Icarus Windrum. This blademaster, who forges his own blades, worshipped the very ground she walked and was a very zealous warrior, one who earned her trust higher than those who seat at the round table.

"...still hate that Zelretch feels obliged to use me to see what dimensions are like first hand. That last one has made me nervous around furries." Ikari's voice was aloof as he returns his attention to the silent king.

"Perhaps I should allow this information to seep in and mellow. I am going to take a walk and see what I can make of this city and its changes." Ikari says as he leaves the spirit of the sword alone in the dinning room.

* * *

"Fuyuki still feels like a normal city, if one discounts the gap-filled past." Ikari mutters to himself as he walks down one of the many streets that make up the city. People of varying features and sizes pass by him with no lingering glances, Ikari was never one to use a charm to dissuade mundanes from seeing him. 'Charms still give off slight signs to those who keep a watchful eye. Now if I were a player in a game of magical life or death, where would I set up a stronghold?' The magus soon comes to an intersection where a car speeds by dangerously close to the sidewalk. A swift grab and pull saves a young woman as Ikari pulls the woman, who is fiddling with her phone, back from the road.

"Careful there, wouldn't want to have an incident." Ikari says as he checks the girl over. No injuries and only appears startled. Rather than make the scene all more attracting, Ikari steps off to the side only to see a mountain in the distance. "Oh right, Ryuudou temple has a leyline right under it. A good spot as any to start."

Within minutes of walking and avoiding vehicles of worrisome speeds, Ikari finds himself at a Tori arch at the bottom of a dizzying amount of stone steps. 'Ever wonder why monks never appear to be too fat. This is thy answer.' With that on his mind, a journey begins to the top of the stairs. Upon approaching the mountain, Ikari's sense have been highlighting various sources of energy throughout the area, not unusual for a place of prayer and worship. What did stand out was at the top of the stairs.

Ikari had made his way up the leaves-covered steps and stood before a fairly well-sized gateway to the temple grounds. The air felt nice and the sun gleams through the trees, brightening up the entrance. Ikari felt, however the hampering sense of being observed and looked towards to the side of the gate. There appeared to be nothing, but that quickly changed as a wisp of smoke-like blob came into view. The wisp soon took form of human shape; fairly tall about Ikari's height, but maybe a head taller. A light violet kimono covers the body with a darker purple hayori settling over, another mixture of blue and purple hakama covers the legs and nearly covers the feet, which are white with socks and bear only simple wooden slippers. A head bearing long blue-violet hair pulled into a long high ponytail and faded blue eyes, said head bore a bemused smirk most likely directed at Ikari.

"Either you are naturally attracted to that which is unnatural or you are here for purposes that this garden of zen probably doesn't provide?" The man says with curiosity. "Had you not taken that lingering gaze, I would've suspected nothing of you." He continues. Ikari raises his eyebrows before relaxing his posture. "I would believe it is safe to assume you are a heroic spirit?" The man in violet closed his eyes and gave a rather careless shrug. "What I am is up for you to find out, though it does beg another question. What is it to you?" The spirit's responds back. Ikari stands at the opposite end of the gate, leaning against the frame as he tries to get a feel about the aura of the man in front of him. "Just curious on why a spirit lingers at this particular location, Ryuudou temple isn't quite that old. Sengoku era? Or perhaps alittle after?" The purple man's attire casually dictated he was of at least low noble status if not a true samurai, however the personality gave off a wanderer's vibe so a ronin wasn't out of the question. The warrior gave no sign to say if Ikari was right or wrong, but one could suppose the silence itself was the answer.

"So I can only assume if I were to attempt to enter this place, you would have to kill me?" Ikari asks and receives a nod as his answer. "My master appears to be well settled in. I am only tasked to guard this gate. A fun task for this servant indeed." The man says as he also rests against the gate, opposite of the brown haired boy. "So Gatekeeper, I would assume you would have a master of significant prana and ability. How else would he be able to keep spirit-aware monks unaware of himself and you." It was more a statement than a question, Ikari didn't need an answer. The warrior made no motion to give an answer and Ikari looks toward the main hall of the temple. An uneasy feeling rolled over him as he looked on.

"I'll take my leave then." Ikari says as he takes a step towards the stairs.

After stepping down a few good steps, Ikari turns his head to look back up at the gate, seeing the violet ronin stand at the top before he slowly fades away; leaving nothing to show as if he were ever there.

"So, very good chances there are two servants on this mountain. At least it isn't that damned priest claiming this place." Ikari mutters to himself as he turns back to get down the steps.

* * *

The day was pretty much the same as any other day at school for Shirou, had it not be for the very strange scent that had permeated into the boys nose the moment he walked into the school yard entrance. It was a foul stench, but wasn't overwhelming, and it held a strong odor of iron or rather blood. It stopped the boy mid-step and he took a moment to take in the assault on his sense. 'What is this? It's almost nauseating.' runs through the boy's thoughts as he continues his stride into the school grounds. "It appears to be a boundary field, Shriou-san. It isn't feeding off of any leylines and it isn't active. Perhaps one of these "masters" of this war of yours is the cause." The soft voice of Guinevre floats from within Shirou's uniform.

"Why would someone do this?" he asks, "The better question would be, who?" Guinevre answer. "To make a fort of this size and strength means that the school is perhaps someone's stronghold." The ferret continues. Shirou recomposed himself as he continues further into the school grounds, hoping nothing bad would happen.

"Shirou-san, the barrier doesn't seem to be at the ready. It feels that the source of this spell isn't quite at strength to trigger." Guinevre muses, "I'd give it a day or so given the rate of prana it is gathering." Shirou let out a breath, 'That means theres still time to remove it.' "For now, lets get to class. We will deal with the barrier at lunch." "As you wish, Shirou-san."

The classes throughout the day went without any hassle. The only two things seem to be amiss today, two students are missing; Shinji Matou and Mitsuzuri Ayako. Shirou thought nothing of it. Rather, Shirou couldn't think much of it as a much more pressing matter came about during lunch.

* * *

"Ohayo, Emiya-kun."

A simply soft and polite voice drifted into Shirou's ears, but they seemed to stab into his spine like glacial stalactites. The red-headed boy turned his head to see the twin-tailed school idol approach him, with a smirk on her lips no less.

"Yo, Emiya-kun." She says

"O-ohayo, Tohsaka-san" Shirou replies

With just that, Shirou could feel the jealousy and envy off of the males throughout his class room. A simple interaction and people want to kill him, go figure.

"Do you have plans for lunch, Emiya-kun?"

"Not exactly, I hav-"

"Good, let's go then." The idol interrupts as she grasps the boy's wrist. She pulls him out of his seat and out of the class room. The boy barely having time to grab his bentou(s).

.

.

"Did Tohsaka-sama just ask Emiya-san for lunch?" A random student asks. Silence was his/her answer.

* * *

The Homurahara school idol and it's "fake janitor" stood upon its fenced rooftop. The idol stands before a fence, holding on to it with one hand and gazing out toward the hillside. The other rested his back against the fence whilst sitting down, he was glancing towards the idol and the floor in front of him.

"Uh. T-Tohsaka-san. Any reas-" Shirou starts

"You know that theres a war about, but you don't bring your servant along for safety?!" Rin interrupts as she scolds the boy. " There's a servant out there that specializes in killing masters! How stupid are you?" She continues to berate the boy.

"Ne-Tohsaka-san, it's during the day, there are people around. No one would risk exposure like that- right?" Tohsaka pursed her lips, Emiya did have point. That didn't mean he was completely right.

"What about right now? There's no one up here with us Emiya-kun." She turns to him and spreads out her arms. True to her word, the roof was without a soul and only the faintest of sounds came from the windows several floors down that happen to be open. Shirou maintains his smile.

"It's a good thing that Tohsaka-san is a good person isn't it then?"

"Grk!"

Tohsaka could only be surprised, the honest to goodness boy in front of her would not put her in bad light. If she were to contrast what he said, it would be a large stain on her appearance(even if only she knew) so with a huff, the girl crossed her arms and turned away from the boy.

"I was attacked last night."

Shirou's eyes widen, he made to stand up, but a Rin waved him off.

"As you can see, I'm alright. Archer, despite his injuries, was able to distract the enemy for us to escape."

Shirou's eyes soften but still looked at Rin.

"Servant Berserker. He was definitely far too powerful. Too powerful for us."

"Perhaps, you could use some help?"

Rin smirks "A pleasant offer Emiya-kun. With your Saber and my Archer, perhaps we can beat that behemoth." She turns to the boy, "Well then Emiya-kun. I suppose I could use an alliance until servant Berserker is destroy." Her hand extends out towards the boy.

Shirou smiles and stands to shake Rin's hand, only to have the white fire ferret pop out of his sleeve. This action caused the Tohsaka to jump back with a squeal.

"W-w-w-what is that!" Rin squeaks.

"Ah, this is-" "Guinevre, fire ferret familiar of Ikari. Before Shirou can agree to this alliance of yours, Ikari wishes for the three of you to discuss its terms." Guinevre interrupts the red head as she rests in the palm of his extended hand. Rin could only look incredulously at the ferret before her. A snort from behind her shakes her out of her stupor and the girl recomposed herself. "That really shouldn't be necessary, I believe Kazehara-kun isn't a participant of the grail war." Rin heard a sound from the ferret which seemed strangely like a snort. "If Shirou-sama is included, Ikari will be involved. Participant or not."

"Very w-well then. We shall discuss this at your residence Emiya-kun." Tohsaka Rin crossed her arms across her chest as she puffed haughtily at the ferret.

Shirou could only shrug his shoulders.

* * *

"Shirou. Is there a reason you have an enemy master present?" The spirit of the sword and once king of knights words are cold and sharp, her invisible blade held pointedly(one would guess) at the twin-tailed magus that is Rin Tohsaka. Normally, Saber's voice would have stopped Shirou dead, but something seemed off about the boy.

"Saber. Is Ikari-san here?" He asks, one would note that it was laced with hope.

"No, he is performing his usual walks into town. I fail to see what he has to-"

Shirou didn't pay the king anymore heed as he steps past her deftly towards his sanctuary. It has seemed he finally has his kitchen back to himself. The servant could only glare as the boy disappeared into the dining room. Rin could only raise an eyebrow at the interaction before both girls stepped into the dining room.

Shirou was in a delightful mood as he strove about in his kitchen, materials and spices being piled together into a potentially great tasting creation.

"Ne, Emiya-kun seems to be in his own little world." Rin comments as she takes a seat at the low table. Saber follows suite.

Minutes later, loud noises could be heard from the entrance, one of which could identified as high pitched laughter. Also possibly squealing.

"Ikari-kun, you can't just comment on girls like that. They'll take it the wrong way!" A voice Shirou could identify as Fuji-nee scolds the brunette boy as the purple haired Sakura only giggled. "What?! I'm just being honest. How was I suppose to know my words would be taken as flirting." Ikari pleads against the woman. Taiga had been laughing quite hard if the tears at the edges of her eyes were clues. "Ikari-kun, You were giving Saeguesa-san streamless comments and innuendos. Hardly being a blunt or honest person for that." Sakura chides the older boy. Ikari seemed to have the good nature to turn his head away sheepishly.

The three newcomers stop as they step into the dining room.

"Ah, Ohayo Fujimura-sensei, Kazehara-san, Matou-san. You're just in time for Shirou to start up dinner." Rin's voice draws a long pause. A helpless smirk could be seen on Ikari's features as he strodes over to take a seat next to Saber. Fujimura and Sakura still remain at the entrance, frozen expressions upon their faces. The room was quiet save for the clatter of metal and food in the kitchen.

The silence remained for minutes afterwards.

Soon its time came at an end.

"Ikari-san, would you mind helping me set the tabl-" The red headed chef stopped cold in the in between of the dining room and kitchen. The plates in his hand rattled slightly as fear shot into his spine.

* * *

Dinner was an interesting meal.

Promptly after Fujimura's outburst(put mildly) the six dug into their meals with vigor and Shirou instantly felt better noting his cousin's reaction to the food. Ikari believed Shirou had indeed improve from the last time they prepared a meal together and was making good progress in western style food. He noticed Rin whispering to herself, but paid no mind to it, though he did catch a 'not as good as me' amongst her words. The meal would have been quite normal, had it not been the strange sight of Saber eating.

Ikari has seen some heavy eaters and some speed eaters, sometimes people that are both. He has ,yet, to meet one at the level of Saber's caliber. Even eating isn't the right word for it, possibly assimilating would work as the food would simply disappear into her feeding hole. It startled him to a point as was Shirou also.

"Ikari-kun, I know you've told me before, but what does your job actually entail?" Ikari smiles as he gulps down what left he had. "Simple really, I am a negotiator for an entertainment firm. Officially I'm suppose to be a manager of public affairs, but the higher ups thought I was pretty good at persuasion if you will." "Ah seems like a dream job if you get to have the number of vacations you've been having." "Not exactly vacations, Tai-chan. Most of the time I've been on the job when I come by here, just little breaks here and there." "Ooooh! Meet any big stars?" "No, I mainly deal with some television network heads so I can discuss whether or not they will show any of my companies programs."

The two continue to talk abit as the others continue to eat.

Within moments, the food Shirou prepared was gone and a content sigh from the consumers notified that the meal was enjoyed.

"Now that was a very good meal. Delicious cooking Shirou-kun." Fujimura says as she leans back to pat her belly. Ikari nods in agreement as he sips some tea. However, the boy chef only knew that this was the calm before the storm.

"So tell me..." The pause caused Shirou to stiffen as Taiga's eyes fell upon both Rin and Saber. "What brings you here again, Saber-san?" The blonde servant's eyes lock with the tiger's with much ferocity. "I am a friend of Kiritsugu and Ikari-san from England. I was a partner of the former and a good friend of Ikari's grandfather." Taiga received a nod from Ikari which slightly lessens the woman's attitude. "I happen to chance upon Shirou and he offered his home as a place to stay rather than have me search for a hotel." Shirou nods his head rapidly, hoping that his guardian would buy the story. "Shirou does tend to be very helpful to others, even strangers, Tai-chan. Most would that is an endearing trait of his." Ikari says as he takes another slurp of his warm beverage. "Then again, his nature might get him into complicated situations aswell." Shirou could only drop his head.

"Then how about yourself Tohsaka-san." Taiga was willing to accept Saber for the moment, but the school's idol is another matter. "What brings you here?" All heads(excluding the subject) turned toward the twin-tailed girl. Tohsaka puts down her tea and places her hands upon her lap.

"My home is currently under renovation due to an incident and rather than have myself also staying at a hotel, Emiya-kun had been so kind as to offer his home in place of a hotel." The school idol's face was stoic yet held a appreciative appeal to it. Once again, Taiga was challenged with the fact that her charge is such a kind soul. "Be that as it may, there is still the fact that two girls and two boys-" A cough drew Taiga's and everyone else's attention to Ikari. "Twenty five here Tai-chan." The woman snorts before continuing. "Girls and boys shouldn't be under the same roof!"

"I trust Emiya-kun to be most kind and respectful, wouldn't you agree Fujimura-sensei?" Rin's soft delivery sets the older woman back, "I also trust Shirou to be nothing, but courteous" with Saber's backing, the tiger could do nothing but concede her defeat. "Yes...Shirou is the most kind and helpful boy there is..." Taiga's eyes fall upon Ikari. "Very well then. If anything were to happen, It will be Ikari-kun's responsibility!" Her statement alittle louder than should be. The brown- haired boy froze.

"Hai, I leave myself in your care, Ikari-san." says Rin.

"Take care of me aswell, Ikari" states Saber.

"Look after me also, Ikari-kun." Shirou places the final nail as Ikari bites back a hiss towards his beloved cousin.

'Bastard. Leave me to face Tai-chan's fury when you guys foul up. Hell hath no fury like the Tiger of Fuyuki on a warpath.' Ikari thought as he withered under the beaming stare of Fujimura Taiga.

* * *

Sakura and Taiga left the Emiya estate, Ikari noticed that Sakura was alittle more hesitant to leave, but not many can resist Taiga's urges. It hasn't escaped Ikari's notice of the purple-haired girl's obvious attraction toward his oblivious cousin, but to let the subject of her affections know isn't a thought he entertained. After all, that would just be telling and theres no fun in that.

Rin had explained to Ikari the incident regarding the night prior and the reasons behind the alliance. The young man no doubt surprised by the apparently the sheer power her attacker had, but Rin had not gotten away from the situation without learning a few things. Her attacker was the servant with the class of Berserker and the name of its(Rin had stated that it was male, but it was too monstrous to classify as a he) master, Illyasviel von Einzbern. According to Ikari's own knowledge along with Tohsaka's, Shirou learned that the Einzberns are one of the founding mage families of the Holy Grail War and also have come to summon a very strong servant according to Tohsaka's experience. Despite Rin's tale, Saber remains quite confident that she could best this Berserker, her claims bringing a sense of calm to the red-head, but also a strong sense of worry.

To add on to his worry, Ikari does, once more, something he didn't expect.

"You really do suck as a magus, Emiya-kun. No wonder you have your cousin here to protect you. God knows how you happen to summon Saber though." Shirou could only sigh as once again, the better magus of the three(still in debate) of them ridicules his ability. "Its a simple spell, to cast a ball of fire." Rin continues, Shirou bit back the need to groan. At least the girl agreed to Ikari's terms, even if it was to make up for his lack in ability to teach magecraft.

As the two teens dive into their antics in the dinning room, Ikari stands on the veranda just outside conversing with Saber with the occasional comment tossed towards the roof. Onlookers wouldn't notice this, but a man in red stood upon the Emiya estate, his eyes looking on in the distance. "Ne, Saber. Don't be so overly cautious, Tohsaka-san is our ally. Her servant won't do anything untoward your master." Ikari says, Saber was sitting upon the edge of the veranda her eyes flowing from Ikari towards the creature in her hands. "It has been quite some time hasn't it, Guinevre?" Her voice soft as she uses one of her hands to caress the ferret's fur. The creature purred, "Far too long, A-Saber. I guess I should get use to that being your name." "I'm afraid so, Guinevre." "Tis, however, a fitting name. Better that than a lancer."

"Hey, I resent that Guin." Ikari barks as he glares at the white ferret.

"Ikari, you seem far too accepting of the events so far. Your goal isn't just to keep Shirou safe, especially since you've accepted Tohsaka's offer." Saber says as she continues to pet the ferret. Tohsaka was an enemy master, someone they would have to fight. Even if they allied with one another, it would come to a time where they would have to be at each other's throats. "There are more things I'm worried about, besides I got a good feeling about Tohsaka-san." Ikari says as he checks himself over and then picks up his jacket from beside Saber.

"I'm going to go out. Perhaps I can learn more about other servants?"

Ikari steps back into the dining room, sidestepping both Shirou and Rin, and slips on his shoes in the foyer.

He made about twenty steps out of the estate.

"Kazehara-kun."

Ikari turns to see Rin a few paces behind him. She was still in her school uniform and had her hands to her side. Her blue eyes pierced into his own, a small frown upon her lips. Her feet was shoulder width apart and had her chin close to her chest. She looked like someone who needed a favor.

"Kazehara-kun, what do you know of the Matou family?" Her voice was aloof.

"Unique family, associate founders of the Holy Grail, and insect-like magic crest. Currently has no heir, with the last one capable, Kariya, being a casualty of the last Heaven's Feel. I would guess that their current line has no one of capable circuits." Ikari's voice was matter-of-fact.

"Yes, but did you know about the conn-"

"The relationship between the Makiri and Tohsaka? Yes, and I also know of Sakura being the sacrificial lamb." Rin's eyes widen. "I've had my suspicions since I've met her and it was tonight that confirmed it. Her reactions to your presence and vice versa were pretty tell-tale."

"I see... I need to ask yo-"

"I won't bring any harm to your sister, Tohsaka-san. Not something I'd want to do anyway." Rin's expression softens. "Too cute to try and fight anywho." This brought a small chuckle from the twin-tailed magus.

"I need you to take her away from the Matou." Despite Ikari's jibe, Rin steeled herself. "Can you save Sakura from them?"

"That's alot to ask of me. I still have to deal wit-"

"Shirou will have me as his ally. I already accepted your terms to teach him more about magecraft." Her voice trembles slightly "Please, Ikari-kun. Save Sakura."

.

.

.

.

"Alright then. I will, Rin."

* * *

A/N

Well, that took a long time to update. No excuses besides general games(AC3, HALO4, FC3, Hitman) and movies that delay me. Been watching clips of carnival phantasm and trying to get my comp to accept Tsukihime. Trying to get DayZ on my comp and spent a good amount of time fighting in Chivalry. No excuses.

I rushed through the final quarter of this chapter so I apologize for both the delay and utter crappyness of this chappy. Enjoy what you can and leave what cha want.

Hopefully the next chapter doesn't take as long


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